Maharashtra govt scraps 5% Muslim quota

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

MUMBAI, March 6: Just two days after it managed to get the President’s assent on banning beef in the state, the Maharashtra government officially axed the five per cent reservation for Muslims in educational institutes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government’s move, seen as discriminatory and as an attempt to appease Hindu right-wing organisations, has triggered outrage and severe criticism from opposition parties in Mumbai.

A resolution was issued by the state government earlier this week to nullify a previous notification, issued through a special ordinance passed by the previous NCPCongress government in July 2014, granting five per cent reservation to Muslims in educational institutes and government jobs.

 

The same notification also provided for 16 per cent reservation in government jobs for the Marathas. However, earlier last year, the Bombay High Court had stayed the provisions of the ordinance except for the five per cent reservation for Muslims in education.

But the new government resolution means that the quota for Muslims in both government jobs and education has been axed.

What has irked the Muslim community as well as the Opposition even more is that in December last year, the government approved a Bill to bypass the high court order and allowed 16 per cent reservation in education and jobs for the Marathas.

However, the government remained silent on the Muslim reservation, knowing well that unless a similar Bill was passed for them the previous ordinance would lapse.

State Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse said that the resolution was passed since the government was “unable to take any decision on the issue and was waiting for Advocate General Sunil Manohar’s opinion.” The Congress and NCP have lashed out saying the BJP-Sena government is just implementing “anti-minority policies to appease the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)”. “Most BJP ministers have got an RSS background and we all know that RSS is blatantly anti-minority. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis too is an RSS member. So, every step that they take is guided by the politics of communalism. Please go and ask Fadnavis if he has read the Sachar Committee report or the Ranganath Mishra Committee report? I can tell you, he has not,” said Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha.

The NCP too accused the government of “being run from the RSS headquarters” and party spokesperson Nawab Malik said that “BJP’s anti-Muslim agenda was apparent”. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which stunned everyone by winning two seats in the state polls last year, has said that it will seek a legal recourse. Earlier this week, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had publicly demanded that Fadnavis introduce the Muslim reservation Bill, to which Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had responded by saying that Owaisi must go to Pakistan if he was keen on such reservation.

“Whether it is to appease the RSS or to play vote-bank politics, what is clear is that the BJP-Sena government is specifically taking decisions that go against the Muslim community.

We are not asking for any religion-based reservation but our demand is a socio-economic one. Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution provides for this right?” said Waris Yusuf Pathan, MIM leader and MLA. Fadnavis though has defended his decision, saying: “The Constitution does not allow for reservation based on religion.”