Mumbai

The Opposition on Wednesday termed the BJP-led Maharashtra government “anti-minority” after it cancelled the five per cent reservation for Muslims in education and government jobs.

Former state Congress working committee member Naseem Khan alleged that the ruling Mahayuti coalition had committed a grave injustice, while NCP (SP) spokesperson Clyde Crasto said the BJP does not value Muslim leaders within its party or its allies.

The Mahayuti coalition comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, and the Shiv Sena.

Speaking to reporters at Tilak Bhavan, Khan said scrapping the quota for socially and educationally backward sections within the Muslim community was “extremely wrong” and would deprive minorities of opportunities to join the mainstream of development.

He said the previous Congress-NCP government had issued an ordinance in 2014 granting the Muslim quota. “The subsequent Devendra Fadnavis government did not take the process forward, and even after the Bombay High Court granted interim relief for five per cent educational reservation, its implementation was not ensured,” Khan alleged.

He added that while the quota was implemented for the 2014–15 academic year, it was not continued later despite repeated assurances by the BJP government.

Khan further alleged that several welfare schemes for minorities launched by the earlier Congress-led government were discontinued. He claimed scholarships for minority students had been curtailed, with only Rs 20 crore allocated against an annual requirement of around Rs 90 crore.

Raising another issue, Khan alleged irregularities in the grant of minority status certificates to educational institutions. “Around 70 to 75 schools, including some large institutions, have been granted minority status certificates. We have learnt that Rs 5 to 10 lakh was charged for each certificate. The government should cancel these certificates, order a CID or Special Investigation Team probe, and suspend the officials concerned,” he said.

Khan stressed that minorities include not only Muslims but also Jains, Sikhs and Parsis, and said the government must ensure equal development opportunities for all communities.

Echoing similar views, Crasto said the decision showed that the BJP does not value Muslim leaders of the party and its allies. “It also proves that these leaders will not get justice from the BJP,” he claimed.

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The erstwhile Congress-NCP government had issued an ordinance to grant a 16 per cent quota to Marathas and a five per cent quota to Muslims. However, according to a government resolution issued on Tuesday, all previous decisions and the ordinance related to the five per cent reservation for socially and educationally backward Muslims under the Special Backward Category (A) have now been cancelled.