Muslims should get what is due to them: Maulana Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rashadi
Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Imam and Khateeb of Jamia Masjid in Bengaluru Maulana Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rashadi on Thursday said Muslims should be given whatever is due for them, with regard to the four per cent reservation for them in jobs.
The BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai decided to scrap the four per cent reservation for Muslims in government jobs and educational institutions weeks ahead of Karnataka Assembly polls on May 10.
The Chief Imam was reacting to the Supreme Court's observation that the Karnataka government's decision raising the quota for Vokkaligas and Lingayats by two per cent each while scrapping the four per cent reservation for OBC Muslims prima facie appeared to be on a "highly shaky ground" and "flawed".
The Karnataka government made the 2B category redundant by removing the four per cent reservation given to the Muslims and placed them in the Economically Weaker Section category.
At the same time, the government distributed the four per cent equally to Vokkaligas in 2C and Lingayats in 2D category of the OBC. The government also said that the reservation for Muslims in Category-1 and 2A of the Other Backward Castes has not been touched.
"We believe that whatever is due for Muslims should be given just as others are getting. Rest is left to Allah whom we believe in," Rashadi told PTI.
He asserted that the four per cent reservation under the 2B category of the Other Backward Castes to the Muslims was not on the basis of religion but community. Muslims were getting the reservation as was given to others.
"Government has said that this reservation was on the basis of religion and this was wrong and baseless. This was the reason why we approached the Supreme Court," the maulana said.
The court has posted the matter for further hearing on April 18.
Meanwhile, retired IAS officer S M Jamadar, who spearheaded a campaign for separate Lingayat religion, welcomed the decision saying that the apex court had made an appropriate, just and fair observation.
"Just for the sake of election and to woo people, denying the rights of a community is unheard of and unthinkable," the retired officer said.
There was no immediate reaction from the Vokkaliga Sangha. Also, neither the government nor the opposition Congress or the JD(S) reacted to the development.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
