BJP doubles down on Muslim quota barb; desperate bid to polarise: Congress

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 26

The issue of minority reservation within the existing SC, ST and OBC quota pie echoed on Phase-2 voting day with the ruling BJP accusing the rival Congress of nurturing reservation for Muslims as a “hidden agenda” and the grand old party dismissing the saffron unit’s “polarising insinuations as a losing incumbent’s last resort”.

Modi flags ex-pm’s video

There’s another video where he (Manmohan) is reiterating that Muslims have the first claim on resources. But I won’t allow diversion of quota meant for SCs, STs and OBCs. Narendra Modi, Prime minister

Resorting to last tactic

Realising that they have lost in south and come down to half the numbers in north and central India, the BJP leaders are resorting to their last tactic of polarisation. Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader

Appeasement keeping Congress, TMC together: Modi

• Addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Malda, PM Narendra Modi said the biggest magnet to keep the Trinamool Congress and the Congress together was “appeasement”.
• Accusing the TMC of working to settle Bangladeshi infiltrators, Modi said the Congress was talking about distributing people’s “assets among such vote banks”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led the charge, flagging a purported pre-2009 Lok Sabha poll video of predecessor Manmohan Singh, who is heard reiterating his 2006 remark about “the first claim on national resources being that of the minorities, particularly poor Muslims”.

“When I exposed the Congress and INDI Alliance for their discriminatory approach, the Congress ecosystem started browbeating me. They lied to the extent that MM Singh never uttered the words on Muslim prioritisation in the national resource pie. Now, there’s another video where he is reiterating his stand that Muslims have the first claim on resources. But I won’t allow reservations meant for SCs, STs and OBCs to be diverted for vote bank politics,” the PM said at a rally in Bihar’s Araria.

Earlier today, BJP chief JP Nadda accused the Congress of harbouring a “hidden agenda to snatch majority rights to favour the Muslims”. “The Congress manifesto mentions that majoritarianism has no place in India. This means the Congress hates SCs, STs and OBCs because these communities are the majority in India,” Nadda said.

Nadda also listed past Congress “attempts” at central and state (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka) levels to bring Muslim sub-quota within the 27 per cent OBC quota, former PM MM Singh’s December 2006 address to the National Development Council (NDC) on the need to prioritise poor minorities in development; a 2011 UPA move to bring Muslim sub-quota within the OBC reservation, among others.

The Congress hit back, terming Nadda’s statements as “lies”. AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh countered the BJP chief saying “negative voting trends” across two phases had rattled the incumbents.

“Realising that they have completely lost in the south and come down to half the numbers in north and central India, the BJP leaders, including the PM, are resorting to their last tactic of polarisation. JP Nadda is peddling lies. After his December 9, 2006, address to the NDC, Manmohan Singh on December 10 clarified what he meant and said that fruits of economic development must go to the SCs, STs, OBCs, women and youth,” Ramesh said on the BJP’s onslaught that seeks to woo vast masses of backward classes as a counter to Congress’ “caste census push”.

The BJP argued that the Congress had always planned a Muslim reservation and laid ground for it through the Sachar Committee, which “falsely concluded that Muslims were worse off than Dalits in India”. “The Congress plan from day one was SC reservation for Muslims by eating into the constitutional reservation benefits meant for SCs, STs and OBCs,” Nadda said.

The BJP chief even quoted an October 17, 1951, speech of BR Ambedkar to cement the saffron charge. “Even Baba Saheb Ambedkar noted that former PM Pt Nehru in the 2,000 speeches that he had made never spoke of SC welfare,” the BJP supremo said.

The BJP also questioned the Congress for scrapping SC, ST and OBC quota in Aligarh Muslim University, a central institution, by bringing a law to bypass a court order backing quotas. Nadda said the BJP was not against Muslims welfare, “but Muslims should not reap undue benefits at the cost of others; benefits of social security should go only to the needy”.

Amid a progressively bitter campaign, the Congress rushed to pin the debate down to basic issues asking if the PM would continue with the Agnipath scheme, why his government “throttled MGNREGA in Bihar” and why was he not doing anything to prevent river erosion in West Bengal’s Malda.

The PM campaigned in West Bengal and Bihar — the two eastern states where tough Lok Sabha contests are on the block between BJP-led NDA and dominant regional players — RJD-led INDIA bloc in Bihar and ruling TMC in Bengal. In Bihar, the NDA currently holds 39 of the 40 segments. In Bengal, the BJP, with 18, had finished close behind TMC’s 22 in 2019.

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