The Eknath Shinde government constituted the committee after the Members of Legislative Council from BJP alleged that several ST community students had allegedly converted to Islam or Christianity but had taken the benefit of ST reservations.
The committee, headed by the former Vice Chancellor (VC) of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Murlidhar Chandekar, and two others have been directed to submit the report in 45 days.
“In this regard, provisions of the constitution, fundamental rights, notifications of the central government, and various courts should be considered, and the committee must suggest measures to the government,” the order issued by the Skill Development department said.
However, the opposition has opposed the move, saying that it will lead to only “harassment of tribal students”.
“This GR is similar to the interfaith marriage or love jihad committee. This committee also won’t find anything. This will only lead to harassment of tribal students in ITIs. This shows how government machinery is being used to harass students and create a rift between communities. I will request Lodha and the state government to not allow the use of state machinery for harassment of citizens,” Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh said.
Speaking to India Today, Chandekar, who heads the committee, said that the committee will have a positive outlook.
“Nobody wants conversions to happen. We endeavour to provide benefits to tribal students so that religious conversions can be avoided,” he said.
However, Praveen Darekar, the BJP leader who raised the allegations, claimed that they found that “some students were wrongly taking benefit of tribal quota”.
“Hence this committee has been formed to identify and stop such beneficiaries. I don’t think this has anything to do with religious discrimination. We are only trying that deserving tribal students get their due and their share is not misused,” he added.
Commenting on the legality of the order, Lawyer Asim Sarode said, “this order is an attack on STs’ existence” and “If STs change their religion, that doesn’t change their caste”.
“Adivasi is a social unit and they form a class as ‘Original Inhabitants’. By changing religion, no one can say the original inhabitant status can be changed,” he noted.”
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