Minorityism can lead to Partition: BJP

Lucknow : In the backdrop of the raging debate over the politics of appeasement being pursued by the UPA Government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said such unchecked minorytism would lead to the second partition of the nation.

“If unchecked, the attempt to create a special citizenship for Muslims will pave the way for a second partition,” the BJP said in a resolution titled UPA Government’s Vote-bank Politics adopted unanimously at the party’s national executive meeting here on Saturday.

Leaving no scope for any doubts about the BJP’s determination to use ‘minorytism’ as a powerful tool to corner the Congress and Samajwadi Party in the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, the party vowed to resist the dangerous drift with all its might.

“The Congress is playing havoc with the Indian identity and nationalism. The UPA has made Muslim appeasement and vote-bank politics the hallmark of the governance. The BJP national council resolves to mobilise all nationalist Indians and defeat the assault on our nationhood,” the four-page resolution said.

“By attempting to re-inject religion-based quota, the Congress is re-opening old wounds,” the resolution added, reminding countrymen that “the creation of a separate electorate and categorisation of society along religious lines produced a separatist mindset and led to partition in 1947.”.

At the same time, the resolution sent across a clear message that BJP would leave nothing unturned to bring Muslims into the social and political mainstream and talked of how the Congress was responsible for their plight in the country.

“The BJP believes that Muslims are an inseparable part of India. They share with the rest of the people a common ancestry and culture. Their struggle for economic prosperity, social dignity, women’s empowerment and education make them one with the rest of India,” resolution says. “By separating Muslim issues from the rest, the Government is creating an artificial divide, breeding resentment and nurturing divisive forces. By linking the fate of terrorist conspirators with Muslim interests, the Congress and its allies are implicitly suggesting Muslims have a stake in terrorism aimed against the ordinary people, that is great injustice to nationalist Muslims,” the resolution said.

“We are not against Muslims. We are opposed to the mindset that the Congress is promoting, thereby threatening the country’s unity and social harmony. The BJP firmly believes in the policy of justice to all, and appeasement to none. All weaker sections of the society need special attention. It cannot be done, however, on the basis of religion,” former Minister Sushma Swaraj said while tabling the resolution.

About the Congress’ love for Muslims empowerment, the BJP resolution noted that the secular credentials of such parties have developed “a vested interest in keeping Muslims poor, ghettoised and in a state of permanent nervousness. They have perceived Muslims as voting fodder and not worked for their betterment. The social disabilities of Muslim women have never been addressed.”

To substantiate UPA’s communal appeasement, the resolution cited several examples including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s famous ‘Muslims first’ remark at the recent meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in New Delhi.

“The inclusion of Muslim League MP in the Union Council of Ministers, shielding perpetrators of the Godhra train arson, protecting illegal Bangladeshi migrants, religion-based reservation in Andhra Pradesh, Sachar Committee, exclusion of minority institutions from the ambit of SC, ST and OBC quota make a shameful record of UPA’s politics of minorytism,” Swaraj said.

Responses