New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday described the
Congress' promise to Muslims in Uttar Pradesh of providing
reservations as a "quota cocaine" and asked the minority
community to reject such gimmicks.
BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the
Congress with trying to hijack Muslim votes ahead of the
upcoming Assembly elections by "injecting the cocaine of
quota".
"The minorities would outrightly reject such lollipop
gimmicks," he claimed.
The BJP insisted that neither the Congress, nor the
Samajwadi Party or the ruling BSP have worked for the
socio-economic and educational development of minorities while
in power.
Now these parties are going all out to woo the
minorities, particularly Muslims, by resorting to gimmicks,
tricks and populist announcements like giving reservations, he
said.
Naqvi asserted that participation of Muslims in
government jobs had come down by 42 per cent during the last
decade in Uttar Pradesh, while it went up in the BJP or the
NDA ruled Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh by
31, 38, 34 and 24 per cent respectively during the same
period. This means the minorities can benefit even without
reservations, he added.
The BJP maintained that reports by Justice Sachar and
Justice Ranganath Mishra on minorities show how the Centre has
miserably failed to work for the economic, social and
educational development of the minorities and is using
reservation "like opium" to further its "unethical and
exploitative brand of politics".
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 03, 2011, 23:42