Rahul Gandhi takes jibe at Nitin Gadkari's job remark over Maratha stir

In a tweet, Rahul said: "Excellent question Gadkari Ji. Every Indian is asking the same question. #WhereAreTheJobs?"

When asked about the demands of reservations in government jobs, Gadkari, who is the Road Transport and Highways Minister, said as he has been quoted by NDTV, "Let's us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?"

The Maratha agitation over the reservation issue has been going on for quite sometime but the latest protest turned violent.

The protest, which was spearheaded by Maratha Kranti Morcha (a Maratha community), turned violent with agitators clashing with the police and torching vehicles, prompting police to use lathi and opened blank fire.

Adding to his job remark, Gadkari had said: "The problem with the quota is that backwardness is becoming a political interest. Everyone says I am backward. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics. (And) They say they are backward."

"So one school of thought is that a poor person is a poor person, he has no caste, creed or language. Whatever may be the religion -- the Muslim, the Hindu or the Maratha (a caste), in all communities there is one section which has no clothes to wear, no food to eat."

"One school of thought also is (that) we must also consider the poorest of the poor section in every community," the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has been quoted by NDTV.