MUMBAI: A day after a controversy broke out over the scheduled caste scholarship awarded to her, Maharashtra social justice minister Rajkumar Badole's daughter Shruti decided to give it up.
In a statement issued in Mumbai, Shruti stressed that her entire education was based on the basis of merit and she had received accolades on her merit even when her father was not a minister.
Shruti, in a statement, said, "I completed my education from IIT, Madras. My father wasn't a minister then. I completed my MSc from the University of Sussex. I got admission and scholarship there purely on the basis of merit. My dream is to work in the field of Astrophysics and I have climbed every step towards that only on the basis of merit."
"I was selected again on the basis of merit in the top 26 Universities for studying astrophysics. I had told my father that we won't take a loan for my studies as we are still repaying the loan taken for my brother's studies. That is why I applied for state government scholarship," the statement added.
Adding that she had apprehended that there could be a controversy since she was a minister's daughter, Shruti, in her statement, said that was why her father decided to withdraw himself from the procedure.
The Social Justice Department of Maharashtra government awards financial assistance to 50 students from the scheduled castes and neo-Buddhist communities to pursue higher education, post-graduate and doctoral courses in foreign universities. To avail the scholarship the family income of the applicant should be less than Rs 6,00,000 per annum. But, for the ones eligible for the top 100 universities, the income criterion has been removed. The changes in the eligibility criteria for the scholarships were made earlier this year in the month of June.
"There were three scholarships to be awarded in the field of doctoral studies in Science, for which only two applications were received. How could I then have snatched someone else's right?" she questioned.
"If you get admission in any of the top 100 Universities, then there is no income criterion to apply. Now if I fit the criterion, is it my fault? All my education has been completed on the basis of merit. So if I am a minister's daughter, does that make me less meritorious?" Shruti asked in the statement.
"If my scholarship is getting embroiled in a controversy only because my father is a minister, I denounce it." She said in the statement.