Maharashtra state Higher and Technical Education Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil courted over his remarks on state icons or social reformers. The minister stoked a controversy saying Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dr BR Ambedkar had begged to start schools.
Patil in a speech during his Aurangabad tour said, Dr Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule, Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil did not ask the government for the grant while starting schools. They begged before the people, why are you people (school/college managements) dependent on government funding?.
The remark evoked a strong political reaction. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state chief Jayant Patil, while condemning the statement, said that it was a deliberate attempt to insult the social reformers by terming their works as begging.
According to a report of Hindustan Times, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said, Phule, Ambedkar founded the schools during the British era. The ministers from Shinde-Fadnavis have lost their senses and therefore have made derogatory remarks.