Maharashtra BJP leader backs Sachar report
Sayyad Pasha Patel, a popular BJP legislator from Beed in Marathwada, is all for total implementation of the Sachar panel recommendations.
By TNN |
MUMBAI: The BJP’s central leadership and the RSS may be finding it difficult to take a stand on the Sachar committee report. But here is a BJP legislator who has made up his mind much before the Parivar could. Sayyad Pasha Patel, a popular BJP legislator from Beed in Marathwada, is all for total implementation of the Sachar panel recommendations. He believes his party and its ideological parent, the RSS, won’t take a stand contrary to his conviction.
“I have made up my mind because the Sachar report has convinced me about the plight of Muslims. Why would my party and the RSS object when I am doing the right thing by urging everybody to demand that the recommendations be implemented? Yes, I belong to the RSS, but I believe the RSS won’t stop me from saying what is correct,” Mr Patel said when confronted with the dichotomy between his stand and that of his party.
BJP’s state unit president Nitin Gadkari, however, chose to play safe. “The party leadership is in the process of firming up a stand on the report,” he said.
But it’s time to act for Mr Patel, who comes from a region with the largest Muslim concentration in the state. He is in the midst of a massive state-wide mobilisation campaign — Nyayadhish Rajendra Sachar Sangharsh Samiti — among Muslims and others in favour of the Sachar recommendations.
The forum is holding public meetings in Muslim-dominated areas all over the state demanding affirmative action on the report, educating Muslims, and distributing booklets which highlight the main findings. “The Congress has decimated itself by bringing Sachar report to the centre stage. Now, the Muslims know who is the real culprit for their plight,” said Mr Patel.
“I have made up my mind because the Sachar report has convinced me about the plight of Muslims. Why would my party and the RSS object when I am doing the right thing by urging everybody to demand that the recommendations be implemented? Yes, I belong to the RSS, but I believe the RSS won’t stop me from saying what is correct,” Mr Patel said when confronted with the dichotomy between his stand and that of his party.
BJP’s state unit president Nitin Gadkari, however, chose to play safe. “The party leadership is in the process of firming up a stand on the report,” he said.
But it’s time to act for Mr Patel, who comes from a region with the largest Muslim concentration in the state. He is in the midst of a massive state-wide mobilisation campaign — Nyayadhish Rajendra Sachar Sangharsh Samiti — among Muslims and others in favour of the Sachar recommendations.
The forum is holding public meetings in Muslim-dominated areas all over the state demanding affirmative action on the report, educating Muslims, and distributing booklets which highlight the main findings. “The Congress has decimated itself by bringing Sachar report to the centre stage. Now, the Muslims know who is the real culprit for their plight,” said Mr Patel.
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