Nagpur:
Senior minister in Maharashtra cabinet
Vinod Tawde defended his government’s decision to scrap 5% reservation granted to the Muslims in the educational institutions and jobs. He cited Dr
Babasaheb Ambedkar’s opposition to reservations on the basis of religion.
“It was purely an election ploy of previous Congress-NCP government. How can we disrespect the Father of the Constitution of India who was never in favour of reservation on religious basis,” he said during his visit to Bhavan’s School at Trimurti Nagar in the city.
Tawde added that the government already provided huge concessions to poor people among all religious communities, including Muslims. “The ordinance issued by Democratic Front government on July 11 last year had lapsed, as it was not converted into the law within six months,” he said.
The government recently issued a circular through its minority affairs department scrapping the quota, which has already triggered a controversy with Maharashtra Pradesh
Congress Committee (MPCC) deciding to stage a statewide agitation on the issue on Thursday. Along with Muslims quota, the
DF government had also announced 16% reservation to Marathas, which was challenged in the
Bombay High Court. The court later scrapped the Maratha reservation in education and jobs but maintained it for Muslims in education only.
Thereafter, the government passed the contentious bill on granting reservation to Marathas on December 23 last year during Nagpur assembly session while excluding Muslims. The opposition parties criticized the government for the discrimination and communal politics and staged a walkout after the government’s refusal to include Muslims in the bill.