Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav was felicitated at the second National OBC Convention, held at the Constitution Club auditorium in New Delhi on 7 August under the auspices of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh. Speaking on the occasion, he said that 70 years after India won independence, the majority of Indians are still deprived of justice. This community is stuck where it was then. “The country’s rulers have not been just to the backward classes, the indigenous inhabitants of India,” he said. “But yes, they did play politics in their name. Had this politics been aimed at the development of this community, it would have worked wonders and today, the OBCs would have touched new heights of growth and development.”
Addressing a full house, he called upon the OBCs to fight unitedly, not separately. Without naming him, Sharad Yadav attacked the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the national president of JD-U . For the past 40 years that he has been a Member of Parliament, he said, “I have always opposed fissiparous tendencies and will continue to do so.” Assailing the Modi government, he noted that the government was slashing allocations for welfare schemes targeted the majority of indigenous inhabitants. “This has had a disastrous impact on their education,” he said. “Starting with education, OBCs are facing discrimination in every sector.”
Earlier in the session, he was honoured by the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh. On this occasion, Hansraj Ahir, MP Nana Patole, former MP Dr Kushal Bhopche and Justice V. Eshwaraiah were present. Prof Babanrao Taywade, president of the Mahasangh, chaired the session.
The Mahasangh put forward many demands on the occasion. These included making the report of caste census public; constituting an independent OBC ministry at the Centre; implementing all the recommendations of Nachiappan committee, Mandal commission and Swaminathan commission; pension for OBC farm labourers after they cross 60 years of age; removal of the creamy-layer provision; reservation in promotions for OBCs; giving Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes; and filling up of the vacant posts in OBC quota in government offices.
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