Even as the BJP organised protests in several places in Andhra Pradesh on Friday against the government’s decision to give four per cent reservation to Muslims based on their caste, a Christian group has demanded reservation for the economically backward in their community too.
The newly-formed Christian Front is demanding that the state follow the Tamil Nadu example where Christians are included in the five per cent reservation for minorities. The Front plans to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy next week. It insists that the government statistics that Christians comprise 6 per cent of the state’s population are wrong and that Christians account for 10-15 per cent.
Rail roko
Meanwhile, BJP’s youth wing held up trains on the Osmania University campus here on Friday by squatting on the rail tracks demanding that the government rescind its decision on reservation for Muslims.
In Anantapur, the BJP activists burnt an effigy of the chief minister demanding that the ordinance which is expected to be issued on Saturday be withheld.
Asserting that the BJP would fight against Muslim reservation both “legally and politically”, the party leaders alleged that the decision is politically motivated and even “anti-Hindu.”
The party has asked the Backward Class Commission to spell out the criterion on which it had declared Muslims as socially backward.
The government decision was on the commission’s recommendation.
Meanwhile, Muslim groups that have been made eligible for reservation believe they might not be able to gain from it especially in admissions to colleges.
The reservation comes into effect from this academic year which is to begin in two weeks.
They point out that there are no guidelines for identifying the eligible candidates. Nor can the revenue authorities be expected to issue necessary certificates urgently certifying their “caste” without proper verification and other procedures.
“The reservation seems to be eyewash since there is no mechanism to identify the groups,” said Maulana Hameed Ahmad, president of Muslim organisation Tanzeem Islah-e-Mashirah.
State BJP Secretary K Laxman has pointed out that the commission disposed of the Muslim claim even as 112 other petitions are awaiting its decision.
Besides the government had put on the back-burner the Commission’s recommendation to include 36 castes as OBCs which amounted to “anti-Hindu bias” of the government, said a BJP spokesman.