OBC quota, rights will become a national issue: Wadettiwar

Nagpur: Prominent OBC leader and state cabinet minister Vijay Wadettiwar said ‘fight for rights’ of the community will soon become a national issue and criticized the central government for taking credit over medical exam reservations. Last week, the Union government implemented OBC reservation in the all India quota of NEET for undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats.
“The fact is that the court had ordered this and the central government is misleading the public by patting its own back for OBC reservation in medical education. OBC organizations and leaders have fought hard for this and they are the ones who should get credit,” said Wadettiwar.
When asked if this meant that their agitation has achieved all of its goals, Wadettiwar said there’s a long way to go. “Reservation in medical education was just one of our goals. We are now preparing to take this agitation to the national level where we will raise multiple issues related to both reservation and basic rights of OBC community,” said Wadettiwar.
As a part of taking the ‘movement’ to the national level, OBC community leaders have started talking to major parties as well, said Wadettiwar. “We are speaking with Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party chief) about this. Our next step is to make our movement a pan-India one,” he said. Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are due next year.
To get data from the Centre about OBC population, the Supreme Court has been approached. Wadettiwar said, “We have filed a petition in the apex court through senior advocate Kapil Sibal. Through the judiciary, we are hoping to get OBC-related data from the central government. The state has already started working on it but it will take time. Hence, our appeal is that the Centre should step in and provide us the easily accessible data.”