Hinting towards the senior partner in the UPA, NCP chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday cautioned that taking minorities for granted would be a big mistake. Qualifying his statement the minister said, it is a big misconception among the secular parties that the minorities have no option but to support them.
Speaking at a function organised his party, the Maratha leader said, “Minority welfare is a long drawn process, but at least we should make a beginning. NCP is working in that direction. Some big parties — we do not claim we are a big party with 150 years of experience — tend to take the minorities for granted.”
Elaborating his argument further Mr Pawar said, most of the secular parties take minorities’ support for granted, as they think that for them supporting outfits like BJP and RSS would be next to impossible.
“But if such attitude gains ground among secular parties it leads to ignoring the genuine problems of minorities. This approach is wrong and if it persists, the concerned community will also say if we are going to hell let us also take the political party with us as well,” he said.
The senior minister in the UPA government, however, underlined the initiatives taken by the Centre to make education and housing more accessible to the minorities but stressed that the policies should be implemented properly.
“We should not say that our job is done merely by sanctioning money to state governments. We have to ensure that it is utilised for the purpose it has been granted for,” Mr Pawar added.
Meanwhile lauding the Maharashtra government of which NCP is almost an equal partner, Mr Pawar claimed, the state working out a plan to provide reservation to minorities in the housing sector.
Moreover, When asked to comment on Mr Pawar’s apparent dig at Congress, the AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi refused to oblige by saying: “We do not comment on our allies.”