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Indore:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday accused the Congress of
attempting to introduce religion-based quotas and said it will
oppose all such moves.
Speaking at the party’s national council meeting here, senior BJP
leader Venkaih Naidu said the Congress was attempting to “re-inject
religion-based quotas” and the move was “not only anti-secular and
anti-national” but would also “mostly hurt the interests of backward
classes”.
Referring to
the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to provide four percent
reservation to Muslims, a decision struck down by the state high
court, the BJP leader said the Congress was going against the views
of its own leaders.
“The
Congress is disregarding the views of the Constituent Assembly and
its own leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi who opposed
communal reservations,” Naidu said.
Alleging
that the Congress had used minorities as a vote bank, he said the
party cannot escape responsibility for dismal plight of many Muslims
in large parts of India. Muslims were most backward in states like
Bihar and West Bengal, where “the most vocal of secular parties had
been in power for long”, he added.
Naidu, a
former BJP president, said creation of separate electorates and
categorisation of society along religious lines had produced a
separatist mindset and led to the partition of India. “It is
precisely for this reason that the founding fathers of the republic
kept religion out of decision-making by the state,” he said.
Expressing
his party’s resolve to oppose religion-based reservation, he
contended that attempts to create “a special citizenship for
Muslims” can pave the way for “a second partition”.
Naming
persons from Muslim community in the country who had achieved high
positions in their respective fields, Naidu said there has never
been any discrimination towards individuals on the basis of
religion.
The BJP
leader said his party believed that Muslims were an inseparable part
of India.
“They share
with the rest of the people a common ancestry and a common culture.
Their struggle for economic prosperity, social dignity, women’s
empowerment and education make them one with the rest of India. By
separating Muslim issues from the rest, the government is creating
an artificial divide, breeding resentment and nurturing divisive
forces,” he said.
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