MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government said on Friday that the state is not averse to giving reservation to the backward among the Muslim community. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government is willing to talk to Muslim MLAs in the state to discuss the modalities of how to go about giving reservation to backward Muslims.He was responding to Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar ’s query that since the government had given reservation to the Maratha community, why had it not given reservation to the Muslim community which was also backward.In his reply, Fadnavis reiterated that the government could not give reservation to the Muslim community on the basis of religion. However, he said that there were some who had converted from Hinduism to Islam and these people were getting reservation on the basis of their caste.Fadnavis said that 42-52 such backward castes are getting reservation under the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota in the state. He said that he is willing to discuss with the Muslim MLAs the way forward on how to go about giving reservation to Muslims.Opinion was divided on whether the BJP government in the state had climbed down on the issue of giving reservation to Muslims.Congress MLA Amin Patel told ET that the state government had bowed down to the sustained pressure mounted by the opposition. “Numerous surveys have shown that socially, educationally and economically, many in the Muslim community are more backward than even the most backward Scheduled Castes. So, if they give reservation to the Maratha community, they will have to give it to the Muslim community,” he said.Imtiaz Jaleel, MLA of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, however dismissed the “assurance” given by the CM. “The chief minister had spoken about involving the National Commission for Backward Classes. He has asked us to approach the latter for getting Muslims reservation. This is nothing but a time-wasting tactic which will not yield anything. The government should give reservation to the Muslim community in the same manner it gave to the Maratha community,” he said.