Nanded: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the reservation for the Muslim community is “against the Constitution” while addressing a rally here in Maharashtra as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) celebrations on the completion of nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre.
“The BJP believes that there should not be any reservation for Muslims as it is against the Constitution. There cannot be reservation based on religion”, Shah said in his first rally at Nanded ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
His statement assumes significance in the wake of the increasing number of communal clashes in Maharashtra and also the recent scrapping of the quota for Muslims in Karnataka by the former BJP government ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
While campaigning for the Karnataka assembly elections, Shah had defended the BJP government’s move to roll back the 4 per cent Muslim quota saying that his party only rectified the wrong done by the Congress.
Shah hit out at his former ally and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray saying that “Uddhav Thackeray should tell the people of Nanded if there should be a reservation for Muslims or not.”
He also questioned the former Chief Minister’s stand on triple talaq and Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. “Shiv Sena (UBT)’s alliance partner Congress wants to remove Veer Savarkar’s name from history. Do you [Uddhav Thackeray] agree with it?” Shah said.
The senior BJP leader also took a dig at Thackeray by referring to the split in the Shiv Sena. “Shiv Sainiks left you and came to us because they were fed up with your politics and ideology. We all know who the real Shiv Sena is, they have also got the bow and arrow symbol”, he said.
The Union home minister also accused Uddhav Thackeray of betraying the BJP for the then Shiv Sena’s alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election result.
The Shiv Sena (Undivided) and the BJP contested the 2019 assembly polls together, but the former walked out of the alliance over disagreements on the post of chief minister.
After landing in Nanded, the home turf of senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, the senior BJP leader offered prayers at Takhat Sach Khandelwal Sri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Gurdwara.
Shah also took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent trip to the United States where he criticised the Narendra Modi government.
“Rahul baba always likes to go abroad and criticise the government perhaps because nobody listens to him here … Modiji is cheered and greeted by everyone wherever he goes in the world”, Shah said.
He said, “Modiji has been India’s pride and because of our PM, India has made progress in all the fields.”