UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and MSME Minister Virbhadra Singh in the Lok Sabha in New Delhi on Thursday.Photo / TV GRAB
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: Terming the decision of carving a a sub-quota for
minorities within the 27% reservation for OBCs as a "dangerous political
game" of Congress, BJP on Friday said it could result in a "civil war"
among different communities in the country.
"The quota within quota is Congress party's dangerous political game, which can lead to a civil war among the different communities and castes," said BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The government had late last night cleared the proposal to allow a 4.5% quota for minorities within the 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The BJP leader said his party is in favour of socio-economic development of the Muslim community. He charged the ruling Congress party of exploiting the Muslim votes for political gains for the last 60 years.
"This quota within quota 'lollipop' is also part of the Congress' political exploitation campaign. This is the biggest fraud of the Congress and its government against the Muslims as well as the Constitution. On one hand, it is constitutionally wrong and on the other Muslims are not going to benefit by this," Naqvi said.
"By injecting the cocaine of quota, Congress is conspiring to hijack the Muslim votes. We will not allow this dirty and dangerous game succeed...," he added.
The decision of carving out a sub-quota within the OBC quota comes ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, paving the way for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for minorities as defined in section 2 (C) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) are notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the Act.
Congress welcomes Muslim quota
Welcoming 4.5 per cent quota within 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma today said this decision has made Samajwadi Party and its President Mulayam Singh Yadav "irrelevant".
This decision would make "Sapa saaf, Maya half and Congress top" (remove SP, cut Mayawati to half and put Congress on the top) and SP and its president would now be irrelevant, Verma who had been a close confidante of Yadav in the past told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
"Granting separate quota to Muslims is a praiseworthy step of the central government," he said. Asserting that Anna Hazare would have no no impact in Uttar Pradesh he went on to add that "he is four-feet high while I am six-feet".
Targeting the ruling BSP and Samajwadi Party, Verma said that both have just filled their pockets. "Unemployment has increased and these both leaders are criminals in the eyes of youth who have pinned their hopes on Rahul Gandhi," he said.
Praising the leadership quality of Gandhi, he claimed that in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections Congress on its own would win more that 200 seats and form a majority government while BSP would get 100, Samajwadi Party 50 and BJP 30.
To questions on his claim to chief minister's post, he said "I am a worker of the Congress".
Criticising the BSP government of the state, he said that corruption was rampant alround. "Central minister for environment Jayanthi Natrajan has recently questioned chief minister Mayawati on the spending of Rs 350 crore meant for cleaning of rivers," he said demanding a CBI inquiry on it.
When questioned about his long association with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Beni said he was with socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, Chaudhary Charan Singh and not with Yadav.
Stressing that he was not expelled from Samajwadi Party but had quit it, he said "when I was young, my leader was aged Chaudhary Charan Singh and today when I am old, my leader is young Rahul Gandhi".
Meanwhile, the CPM on Friday termed the Union Cabinet's decision to provide a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities as "most inadequate" and "tokenism", and sought a constitutional amendment to implement 15 per cent reservation for minorities.
"The UPA government has taken this step which smacks of tokenism and has been resorted to keeping the Uttar Pradesh elections in view," the CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement.
Terming the decision to provide 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota as "most inadequate", it said the decision does not reflect the main recommendation of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission Report.
The Commission had recommended implementation of 10 per cent reservation for Muslims and five per cent for other minorities based on the socially and economically backward criteria.
"To enable this, necessary constitutional amendment should be undertaken," the CPI(M) said.
(With inputs from PTI)
"The quota within quota is Congress party's dangerous political game, which can lead to a civil war among the different communities and castes," said BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The government had late last night cleared the proposal to allow a 4.5% quota for minorities within the 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The BJP leader said his party is in favour of socio-economic development of the Muslim community. He charged the ruling Congress party of exploiting the Muslim votes for political gains for the last 60 years.
"This quota within quota 'lollipop' is also part of the Congress' political exploitation campaign. This is the biggest fraud of the Congress and its government against the Muslims as well as the Constitution. On one hand, it is constitutionally wrong and on the other Muslims are not going to benefit by this," Naqvi said.
"By injecting the cocaine of quota, Congress is conspiring to hijack the Muslim votes. We will not allow this dirty and dangerous game succeed...," he added.
The decision of carving out a sub-quota within the OBC quota comes ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, paving the way for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for minorities as defined in section 2 (C) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) are notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the Act.
Congress welcomes Muslim quota
Welcoming 4.5 per cent quota within 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma today said this decision has made Samajwadi Party and its President Mulayam Singh Yadav "irrelevant".
This decision would make "Sapa saaf, Maya half and Congress top" (remove SP, cut Mayawati to half and put Congress on the top) and SP and its president would now be irrelevant, Verma who had been a close confidante of Yadav in the past told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
"Granting separate quota to Muslims is a praiseworthy step of the central government," he said. Asserting that Anna Hazare would have no no impact in Uttar Pradesh he went on to add that "he is four-feet high while I am six-feet".
Targeting the ruling BSP and Samajwadi Party, Verma said that both have just filled their pockets. "Unemployment has increased and these both leaders are criminals in the eyes of youth who have pinned their hopes on Rahul Gandhi," he said.
Praising the leadership quality of Gandhi, he claimed that in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections Congress on its own would win more that 200 seats and form a majority government while BSP would get 100, Samajwadi Party 50 and BJP 30.
To questions on his claim to chief minister's post, he said "I am a worker of the Congress".
Criticising the BSP government of the state, he said that corruption was rampant alround. "Central minister for environment Jayanthi Natrajan has recently questioned chief minister Mayawati on the spending of Rs 350 crore meant for cleaning of rivers," he said demanding a CBI inquiry on it.
When questioned about his long association with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Beni said he was with socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, Chaudhary Charan Singh and not with Yadav.
Stressing that he was not expelled from Samajwadi Party but had quit it, he said "when I was young, my leader was aged Chaudhary Charan Singh and today when I am old, my leader is young Rahul Gandhi".
Meanwhile, the CPM on Friday termed the Union Cabinet's decision to provide a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities as "most inadequate" and "tokenism", and sought a constitutional amendment to implement 15 per cent reservation for minorities.
"The UPA government has taken this step which smacks of tokenism and has been resorted to keeping the Uttar Pradesh elections in view," the CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement.
Terming the decision to provide 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota as "most inadequate", it said the decision does not reflect the main recommendation of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission Report.
The Commission had recommended implementation of 10 per cent reservation for Muslims and five per cent for other minorities based on the socially and economically backward criteria.
"To enable this, necessary constitutional amendment should be undertaken," the CPI(M) said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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