Author: Rajeev Ranjan Roy
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 14, 2006
BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday accused
the UPA Government of drawing the roadmap for 'communal reservation' in the
garb of former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerappa Moily's advocacy of quota
for Muslims and Christians even after such attempts were rejected by the courts
in the past.
"The UPA Government is making attempts
to provide reservation for Muslims and Christians on the basis of the Moily
panel recommendations. It is an attempt to induct communal reservations against
categorical rejection by Andhra Pradesh High Court of the Congress-led State
Government's decision to enforce quota for Muslims in Government jobs,"
Singh said.
"The socially and educationally deprived
sections of the minority community already come in the ambit of other backward
class categories. The BJP is in favour of justice to all the deprived sections
of the society including those in the minority communities. Any attempt to
provide reservation to the followers of an entire religion is non-substantive,
misleading, anti-constitutional and threat to the country's social fabric,"
Singh added.
The BJP has been consistently opposing the
moves for religion-based quotas in any form. The party also opposes exclusion
of the minorities-run academic institutions from existing quota norms under
which 22.5 per cent seats are to be reserved for SC/ST students and 27 per
cent for OBCs. "Against this backdrop, the Centre can only provide reservation
to minorities cutting down the share of SC/ST or OBC. Any such move for the
sake of minority votes is not acceptable to the BJP. The Government has already
done injustice to them by depriving them of reservation facility in the minority
run institutions," BJP chief said.
"From Muslim head count in the Army to
communal reservation in the Government and private sector, the UPA Government
seems to be suffering from the obsession of minorityism," he said.
"Even after 90 years of historical blunder
of providing legislative reservations to Muslims in Lucknow Congress session
of 1916, which eventually led to the partition of the country, the Congress
is unable to learn a lesson, rather it seems to be putting its foot in the
shoes of Muslim League," he said.
