Athawale Defends OBC Quota, Blames Congress for BC Census Delay

Hyderabad: Union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale, a member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, backed the quota for the OBC Muslim community, explaining that it was given by V.P. Singh government following the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. The Congress, which had ruled for decades before that, had not agreed to extend the reservation.

“The Congress wants to unseat Narendra Modi, the first Prime Minister from the Backward Classes community. Many a BC leader was arrested during the emergency. The demand for BC census is being raised after the Congress failed to do it during the 10-year tenure of the UPA,” Athawale told the media during a visit here on Tuesday.

On other issues, he said that if the Telangana government felt that it had been denied its due share in the Union Budget, it should approach the Centre and he would back its demand.

“Andhra Pradesh was given Rs 15,000 crore as it lacks a capital city. The Centre does not discriminate against any state while executing schemes or building national highways, Athawale said.

He said the Centre was stable with the backing of Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam, Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena and Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and would return to power.

Athawale said Modi stood for ‘sabka saath sabka vikas’ and had accommodated him (Athawale) with a ministerial berth despite his party failing to secure a single seat. “The government got a clear mandate despite the fall in seats. National highways, airports are being developed and Vande Bharat trains are being run and work on metro trains have been taken up in all cities,” he said adding that the Opposition alliance had levelled false allegations that the Constitution would be changed if the BJP swept the polls.

On the matter of the Supreme Court observations on excluding the creamy layer from reservations for the SC and ST communities, Athawale said the Centre was mulling increasing the income limit for the creamy layer of BCs from Rs 8 lakh to up to Rs 15 lakh.