Summary:
Yavatmal: Covert attempts are being made to stall the educational opportunities available to SC ST and OBC students in the name of 10% reservation for economically backwards. AIMIM’s local unit led by Sayyed Irfan and others attended the meeting. He also announced Pravin Pawar as the candidate of ‘Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi’for Washim-Yavatmal Lok Sabha seat in the ensuing general election.The founder president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi was scheduled to attend the public meeting, but he did not turn up. The only agenda behind the move is to retain power, said Prakash Ambedkar, founder president of ‘Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi’, a new front of weaker and depressed sections.He was addressing a public rally at the local Samata Maidan on Wednesday evening aimed at mustering power in the hands of underprivileged classes.“If the backward class communities are allowed to join the mainstream, the easy way to power will get hampered,” Ambedkar said, accusing political parties of deliberately neglecting the downtrodden.He also criticized the state for not increasing the allocation for scholarships of SC, ST and OBC students.Training guns on BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP combines, Ambedkar said both alliances are opportunistic. They talk about Gandhian ideology, but never practise it, he said.Calling Modi government ‘maha chor’, Ambedkar said it was still nurturing the ‘Manuwadi’ agenda.On the agrarian crisis, Ambedkar said, “The government allowed import of 20 lakh metric tonne sugar from Pakistan at cheaper rate, which pushed the cane growers in the country to the brink.” Setting up agro produce processing units is the need of the hour, he added.“Congress leader [Radhakrishna] Vikhe Patil speaks about the development plan of Mumbai, but remains silent on the 22 defunct sugar factories in his own region,” Ambedkar said.The opposition leaders are interested in raising the issues related to de-reservation of land in Mumbai as one acre of land there involves over Rs500 crore and it could mean hefty “collection” from developers, he alleged.Criticizing farm activists Kishore Tiwari and Raju Shetty for siding with the ruling party, Ambedkar said, “Their attitude towards farmers has changed merely for personal gains.”“It has been 72 years since Independence, but the power to rule has remained with just 169 families in the country of over 125 crore population,” Ambedkar said highlighting the need to vote for a change by ensuring victory of the ‘Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi’..