PUNE: An umbrella group of 50 Muslim organizations under the leadership of Maharashtra Magas Muslim Haq Parishad (MMMHP) has demanded that the community be given Other Backward Class (OBC) status because of its deprived social and economic position.
“The reports by Rajinder Sachar and Justice Ranganath Mishra Commissions as well as other information available with the government has proved beyond doubt that the community is educationally and socially backward,” MMMHP Convener P.A. Inamdar said at the prelude of the MMMHP convention here yesterday
Apart from that, the Muslim community has a strong legal case going by the Supreme Court ruling of 50 percent reservations and as per Article 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the constitution, said Inamdar.
Clarifying the MMMHP position, he said, “We don’t want to disturb the existing reservation set-up, but we are demanding that Muslims should be accommodated in the OBC category by increasing percentage of reservations at the state and national levels.”
Inamdar said that scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST) have the right to reservation in education, government jobs as well as in politics. However, MMMHP is only seeking that the community be given the right to reservations in education and employment, but under OBC status.
Citing the example of Tamil Nadu, he said that the state has a total 69 percent reservation for all categories, including Muslims.
Similarly, the Maharashtra government should also increase the OBC quota by 10 percent to accommodate the Muslim community.
As per law, the creamy layer even in OBC will not get any of the reservation benefits. Besides, the government should give the status of OBC to Muslims on the basis of backward status and not on religious grounds, Inamdar said.
Sachar committee was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare a report on the overall status of Muslim community of India.
In a significant development, underworld don turned-politician Arun Gawli’s Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) has decided to merge with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a Mayawati aide claimed yesterday.
Senior BSP leader Vilas Garud, Maharashtra unit chief, said that his party representatives had already spoken to Gawli and the latter will contest from the Mumbai South Central parliamentary seat. Gawli is currently lodged in a prison for extortion charges - and a trial is underway at a Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) court.
In the 2004 parliamentary polls, Gawli unsuccessfully contested the same seat. However, he won the assembly polls from Chinchpokli.
He also said that BSP would contest all the 48 parliamentary seats in the State. Garud disclosed that they have already finalized the name of candidates.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP has created a major dent on the Congress prospects and because of the BSP candidates - though none of them actually won the polls - several Congress candidates lost the elections to the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance. In the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, held earlier this year, it offered surprises.
