Click to play videoNew Delhi: The government on Friday faced stiff opposition from the Left and the Right for its decision to give quotas for Muslim OBCs ahead of Uttar Pradesh elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dismissed the move as unconstitutional and the Left alleged that it was a pre-poll gimmick by the Congress.
Though the dates for the assembly elections are yet to be announced, the battle-lines have already been drawn. All the parties have slammed the Congress-led UPA 2 for announcing a 4.5 per cent minority quota within the existing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in jobs and admission to educational institutions.
"With polls round the corner in UP and other states, the government has taken up the reservation issue. This will not help in the upliftment of the minorities and the backwards," said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
"If the government was serious about upliftment, then why haven't they acted on the Ranganath Commission's report in the last two years?" said Left leader Prakash Karat.
Uttar Pradesh has nearly an 18 per cent Muslim vote bank, a number that could decide the fate in as many as 100 assembly constituencies.
With Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi aggressively campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, the move is being seen as one last desperate attempt to reach out to the Muslims who have over the last few years flocked to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
"People know everything. Why such issues are being taken up before the elections? We have always worked for the benefit of the state and have genuinely helped in upliftment of the society," said SP leader Akhilesh Yadav.
First the U-turn on minorities in the Lokpal after RJD chief Lalu Prasad led the charge, then reservations on the basis of religion, the government maybe relying its case on Justice Sachar Committee report on Muslims, but the move has opened up the debate on reservation for minorities.
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