SP wants common minorities prog in MVA manifesto

Mumbai: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has asked the MVA to include a common minorities programme (CMP) in its manifesto. Some of the important demands include staying the ‘love jihad' committee on interfaith marriages, scrapping the govt proposal of invalidating admissions of tribal ITI students by linking them with religion, reservation for Muslims, and a socio-economic survey of the Muslim community, among others. SP MLA Rais Shaikh has written to the MVA netas Prithviraj Chavan from Congress, Jayant Patil from NCP (SP), and Anil Desai from Shiv Sena (UBT) seeking the rollout of a CMP. Shaikh said the MVA must examine and stay the ‘love jihad' committee. The work for drafting a common manifesto for the MVA started in Aug under former CM Prithviraj Chavan."BJP minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha claimed that there are 1 lakh ‘love jihad' cases in the state. However, only over 400 complaints came before the committee, but not a single FIR was registered in any of these complaints. Also, the proposal based on a committee which submitted a report suggesting invalidating tribal students' admissions in ITI by linking it with religion must be scrapped," Shaikh said in his letter.The SP has also demanded enacting a law for gig workers and a budgetary allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for the Muslim community. Shaikh has also advocated the need for Muslim reservation and stressed conducting an extensive socio-economic survey of minority communities to ensure proportionate allocation of funds for various welfare schemes."Minority students should be granted direct 100% scholarships, similar to those provided for SC, ST, and OBC students, instead of the existing educational loan facility. Like the Lok Sabha elections, the minority community will stand firmly behind the MVA in assembly elections. The MVA govt will come to power in the state and should implement these crucial issues concerning the minority community within the first 100 days of govt," said Shaikh.The state govt's Interfaith Marriage Family Coordination Committee, set up by the women and child development (WCD) department in Dec 2022, received complaints about only 402 cases of interfaith marriages in one year, according to information from the WCD department given to Shaikh in 2023.The MVA will hold a rally at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Nov 6, where AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will release the party's poll guarantees. MVA, if it forms govt, will give Rs 2,000 per month to every woman in the state as her right, for the unpaid work she does every day, Chavan said.