HYDERABAD: India will go to war with Pakistan if the situation arises, said Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale here on Sunday.
Echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fiery speech against Pakistan’s excesses, Mr. Athawale said at a press conference that Pakistan had been trying to destroy India for long, but it will soon see that India is capable of destroying Pakistan.
While India had been patient with Pakistan and trying to maintain law and order and maintain friendly relations, the latter had only tried to betray Indian Government and its people, the Minister said.
Pak has not right over PoK
Referring to the latest attack that killed Indian soldiers in Uri, Mr. Athawale said, “This hostile country has been trying to destroy our army and supporting people to take up arms in Kashmir. I say that Pakistan has no right over the part of Kashmir that it administers now. Indians will see a day when even Pakistan Occupied Kashmir becomes part of India”. Pakistan should leave the PoK, the Minister opined.
The Minister also requested the international community to support India by boycotting trade with Pakistan.
Mr. Athawale, who was in Hyderabad for the first time after the formation of Telangana said that all schemes for the SC/ST and OBC welfare were working well in the State. “I am happy about inter-caste marriages which have picked up in Telangana. Last year there were 1,292 such marriages and none of them had reported instance of violence,” he said, adding that he had requested the Centre to increase the incentive for inter-caste marriages from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lakh. The Minister said that casteism can be eradicated only through inter-caste marriages.
At the same time the Minister supported the claim of Patels, Jats and Brahmans on reservations. “The forward castes can have 25 per cent reservation over and above the OBC, SC and ST reservations. This would mean that percentage of reservations would be 75 in India,” said Athawale, who is also a member of Republican Party of India founded by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
RPI supports Vidarbha
The Minister reminded that his party had supported Telangana State formation, and said that now the RPI was supporting formation of Vidarbha and bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh.
The Minister, who was earlier appraised of Rohith Vemula’s case, said that while Rohith could have been declared as belonging to the SC as per the caste of his mother, the findings of Judicial Commission inquiries on the matter differ.
“But whatever be his caste he should be considered a student. And since other students too had killed themselves in that campus the Centre should further probe into the matter,” he said.
