Pankaja Munde, national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated on Saturday that the Maratha community demands real action on reservation, not just empty words, and encouraged the Maharashtra government to engage in constructive dialogue with the quota protesters to end the impasse.
The former Maharashtra minister was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of her Shivshakti Parikrama Yatra. The Maharashtra government can take a decision on Maratha reservation. It has a plan about how much reservation can be allotted to which community. It should hold discussions with protesters with confidence and courage and try to provide reservation to the Maratha community, she said.
If they don’t want to go above the 50 per cent quota cap, then a major decision will have to be taken at the national level. The central government’s problems on this front are different. It faces a similar situation in many states. It will do what it can as per the Constitution, Munde said. Maratha community no longer wants mere promises, they don’t want to be misled, they want concrete action in the form of reservation, the BJP leader added.
She asked the Maratha community members to exert pressure on the government for reservation by holding protests, and said they should not think about ending their lives over the issue. Your fight is useful for the coming generations, Munde added.