Days after becoming the Congress candidate for the upcoming election, Nandan Nilekani has invited controversy by saying that it may be time to look at caste based reservations for jobs in the private sector as well.

"In a society where many categories of people have been throttled and kept suppressed for thousands of years we need to provide a leg up. So definitely we need to have reservations," Nilekani said during the event at the Bangalore press club.

"Everyone who wants to get a job should be able to get a job and everyone who wants to get an education should be able to get an education," he added.

While Nilekani may see little wrong with reservations in the private sector at present, the former Infosys CEO and chief of the UIDAI project wasn't so taken up with the measure in 2009. At the time he argued reservations in the private sector were merely an 'easy shortcut' to provide employment and said that better education facilities were needed.

Writing a blog for Ibnlive before the 2009 elections, Nilekani had said:

Most political parties have added 'private sector job reservations' to their 2009 election manifestos. They have in essence, done everything short of what is truly necessary - reforms that open up the economy, that expand education so that people will have the skills they need to find work, and that simplify labour laws to increase employment.

The NDA government had made a stab at labour reforms and backtracked at the outcry, and while the UPA government had plenty of reformers in its midst, it sidestepped these critical issues. Unless the next government at the Centre takes up these reforms and resists both the inevitable outcry that will come from interest groups and the temptations for easy shortcuts like reservations, we will see our biggest promise - our demographics - become our albatross.

It wouldn't be the first time that the heat of the elections, a candidate has change in his stance on a subject, especially one as contentious as reservations. But unlike other candidates, Nilekani's statements on the private sector and economic reforms will obviously be more closely watched than other candidates given his antecedents.

Unfortunately this will also mean that unlike other candidates he will not have the luxury of being able to switch stands on contentious subjects depending on the party's stand. Nilekani, despite what his party may have him believe, has a good shot at electoral politics because of the clean transparent image associated with him. Doublespeak associated with a typical politician won't serve his fledgling political career well.