Congress wants to give Muslims quota meant for SCs, OBCs, claims Nadda

The BJP chief issued a video on Friday in the middle of voting for the second phase,

New Delhi: The BJP continued to double down on the Congress over its charge of allocation of resources to minorities, with party president JP Nadda issuing a video on Friday in the middle of voting for the second phase, claiming that the Congress will steal the rights of SC, ST, and OBC and give it to Muslims.

“They say that the first right on resources belongs to Muslims but Modiji says the first right belongs to the poor,” Nadda said. 

In the video, Nadda said that in December 2006, addressing the National Development Council, then PM Manmohan Singh said that India will have to “devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslims, are empowered to share equitably the fruits of development.”

Nadda said that this was a “hidden agenda” of the Congress and INDIA alliance. “This comment by Manmohan Singh was not a mistake, he said it because he repeated this in April 2009 in a press conference in Mumbai,” Nadda alleged. The Sachchar Committee, he said, painted a wrong picture about the statues of Muslims which was worse than SCs and STs. 

He also quoted Ambedkar and said that the father of the Constitution has once alleged that in more than 2000 addresses, Jawaharlal Nehru did not speak about backward classes and castes. He also alleged that the Congress, during its rule, changed rules and ended SC/ST reservation in institutes like Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, and alleged that the Congress tried to implement reservations for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh four times but was stopped by the courts. 

Nadda added that the Congress, in its 2009 poll manifesto, had promised nationwide reservation in jobs to Muslims. In 2011, he said, the minorities affairs ministry put forward a proposal for 8.4% sub-quota under OBCs, under which 6% reservation was for Muslims. 

“In Karnataka, we removed the religion-based reservation but the Congress reversed it after they came to power,” Nadda said. The BJP also released a video from the 2006 address by Manmohan Singh. 

Leaders within the BJP said that the strategy to harp on the argument that Congress prefers to give benefits to Muslims was a result of a low turnout in the first phase, which has spelled trouble for the BJP.