YS Jagan welcome into NDA

​Hyderabad: Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale invited YSRCP chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against the backdrop of TDP exit from it.

In an informal interaction with the media after a review meeting with the senior officials of various Central government departments on the implementation of schemes of his ministry here on Saturday, Athawale said he knows the father of Jaganmohan Reddy and former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

“If YSRCP is willing to join the NDA, he would take up the issue with BJP national president Amit Shah. Besides, the NDA would extend its support in the state to the YSRCP chief to become the Chief Minister. Also, he assured to talk to the BJP chief on the issue of Special Category Status (SCS) to AP,” he added.

At the same time, the Union minister also opined that the TDP had taken a wrong decision by leaving the NDA and asked it to reconsider its decision and come back to the NDA fold. ‘Had the TDP continued in the NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have responded positively to the demand of according SCS to AP,” he said.

On the protection of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Athawale said that the Centre is committed to protecting the Act from any kind of dilution. In this regard, the Centre had also filed a review petition against the backdrop of the Supreme Court's March 20 verdict diluting the stringent provisions like immediate arrest under the Act to protect the honest government servants from the false cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on March 20 diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law.

Further, the minister said that the Centre is also thinking about protecting the Act by promulgating an ordinance and the issue is being looked after by Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot.

Responding on the issue of providing reservations for the economically weaker sections, he said that as the president of Republican Party of India (A), his party is favourable to provide reservations to such sections.

However, it should be done without distrusting the existing reservations of the SC, ST and OBC sections. If needed the percentage of reservations should be increased to accommodate to provide reservations to the weaker sections, he said.

Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi is like Indian Cricket Team Captain Virat Kohli and he is like Rohit Sharma, Athwale said the coming together of the opposition parties to take on the NDA will not work. And, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi should save his party first then going with his 'Safeguarding the Constitution' campaign.