Min lands in controversy over remarks on social reformers

Mumbai: State higher and technical education minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil on Friday joined the league of leaders passing controversial remarks on state icons or social reformers

Mumbai: State higher and technical education minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil on Friday joined the league of leaders passing controversial 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.

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The opposition and social activists have slammed the minister, who later said that his statement was taken in the wrong context.

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.

Shiv Sena (UBT) 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.”