New Delhi, Dec. 19: The Prime Minister today told Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe MPs not to mistake the “crutch” of job reservation for a “foot” in their push for empowerment, reports our special correspondent.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged them to work towards creating an atmosphere that would help extend the reservation system to the private sector.

“We cannot force issues in (a) democracy,” he said at a meeting of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe MPs in response to their demand for private-sector reservations in jobs and education. He urged them to work together to make society accept the desirability of such quotas. Aware that the private sector is not inclined to such reservation, Vajpayee said it “has to be responsive to the needs of the society” as the sector cannot exist in isolation.