BJP will oppose UPA’s Muslim reservation move

New Delhi, Nov 12: Terming reservation on the basis of religion against the spirit of the Constitution, BJP on Sunday made clear that it would oppose any move of the Congress-led UPA government to introduce reservation for Muslim community.

“The Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) has talked about Muslims not getting their fair share in government jobs and other employment schemes, we would like to state that the BJP will oppose any such move,” BJP president Rajnath Singh told a news channel.

Reservation on religious grounds was against the country’s Constitution. “We have opposed setting up of the Sachchar Committee and we will continue to oppose it in the Parliament and outside,” Singh was quoted as having said by a release from the television channel.

However, Singh added: “If Muslims as a community are not benefiting from the country’s progress, we have to find some ways to help them”.

The BJP president termed the Prime Minister’s comment about infighting between Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani as “frivolous” saying he should not have commented on the internal affairs of another party.

“It was frivolous of the prime minister to make that comment. Advani and Vajpayee have had an outstanding record of coordinating working inside and outside the Parliament,” the BJP president said.

About the forthcoming assembly elections in some states including the up, the BJP president showed no reservation in seeking help from RSS. He found nothing wrong about the help extended by the RSS in the recent local bodies election in the state.

“The RSS is not a political entity but if their members help us during elections, we welcome them. We hope that the RSS members will help us during coming assembly elections in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal,” he said

Commenting about the recent victory of the party in the by-polls, Singh said the results had bolstered party workers’ morale.

“We have shown everyone that we are the number one party in up and we are going to repeat that performance in the Vidhan Sabha elections,” he said.