Mumbai: The decision by the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government to scrap the reservation for Muslims in educational institutions despite the Bombay High Court ruling is politically incorrect and the saffron alliance, known for its anti-Muslim image, by doing so has missed an opportunity to reconcile with the community, a leading Urdu newspaper said Thursday.
"It was widely expected that the BJP Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra by proper handling of the Muslim reservation issue could have begun a new chapter in the political history of the state. The saffron alliance however by its unwise decision missed this opportunity", Urdu Times Mumbai said in a special article published a day after the state government srapped Muslim reservation while granting the same to the Maratha community.
The newspaper said Muslims like people from other communities had voted in favour of the BJP and the Shiv Sena in a large number in the 2014 Lok Sabha and state elections which resulted in the defeat of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The saffron parties had promised to resolve the issues pertaining to the Muslims kept pending by the previous governments, the paper said.
"However, the government has done nothing in this regard so far which can be called a positive move for the Muslim community", it added.
The newspaper said Prime Minister Modi had used the slogan 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikaas' to woo the Muslims besides people from other communities.
"What's going on is very sad and totally opposite to what had been promised during the elections", the newspaper said.
Claiming that reservation for Muslims will help them brining in the national mainstream, the paper urged the government to re-consider its stand on the issue.
"Instead of looking at the issue along lines of religious faith, the government should consider Muslims as backward, who are lagging behind the national average on the development index, and give them reservation. It will result in a massive support from the community for the present government", it said.
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