BJP and AIMIM two sides of the same coin: Congress
The Congress in Maharashtra on Sunday alleged that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are two sides of the same coin, a move by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to slam the oldest party and the NCP. days later. At a rally in Mumbai for “failing” to implement 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in the state.
Senior Maharashtra Congress leader Naseem Khan on Sunday wondered why the Owaisi-led AIMIM remained “silent” on the issue of Muslim quota when the BJP government was in power in Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019.
Khan, who was a minister in the then Congress-NCP government till 2014, said quotas for Muslims in jobs and education were upheld by the Bombay High Court but not implemented by the then Devendra Fadnavis government.
“When the Congress was protesting the inaction of the Fadnavis government on implementing the quota, the AIMIM remained silent. AIMIM and BJP are two sides of the same coin,” Khan alleged in a statement.
He said that two MLAs of AIMIM in Maharashtra never raised their voice in the assembly when Congress demanded implementation of Muslim quota.
In contrast, AIMIM legislators always supported the Fadnavis government, he claimed.
Addressing a rally in Mumbai’s Chandivali, Owaisi had said that Congress and NCP joined hands with Shiv Sena for power and forgot the assurance of implementing five per cent reservation in jobs and education for the Muslim community.
Alleging that the AIMIM’s political stand has always been supportive of the BJP, Khan said the Owaisi-led party only remembers the Muslim quota during elections. “Even now when civic and local body elections are to be held in Maharashtra, the AIMIM is missing the quota issue,” he alleged.
Khan said the Congress was committed to implementing the Muslim quota. “What have Owaisi and AIMIM done for Muslims?” Khan asked whether the Muslim community knows the real face of AIMIM.
Owaisi had also asked Muslims to stay away from “political secularism”, saying it has not helped socially and educationally backward sections of the community to get quota in jobs and education.
The NCP and Congress are partners in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which came to power in November 2019 after the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The previous Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra provided 5 per cent reservation in jobs and education to Muslims in 2014.
Bombay HC canceled Maratha quota but retained Muslim quota in education.
The opposition alleges that between 2014 and 2019, the then BJP-Shiv Sena government allegedly did not raise the issue of implementing this quota for Muslims.
Read also: BJP and Owaisi are ‘chacha-bhatija’: Rakesh Tikait on AIMIM leader’s demand to repeal CAA
Read also: ‘I am a Hindu, not Hindutwavadi’: Rahul Gandhi attacks BJP at Jaipur rally
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