Minority quota 'lollipop' can lead to civil war: BJP

Terming the decision of carving a sub-quota for minorities within the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes as a "dangerous political game" of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said it could lead to a "civil war" among different communities.

"The quota within quota is Congress party's dangerous political game, which can lead to a civil war among the different communities and castes," said BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The government had late on Thursday night cleared the proposal to allow a 4.5 per cent quota for minorities within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs.

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The BJP leader said his party is in favour of the socio-economic development of the Muslim community. He accused the ruling Congress party of exploiting the Muslim votes for political gains for the last 60 years.

"This quota within quota lollipop is also part of the Congress' political exploitation campaign. This is the biggest fraud of the Congress and its government against the Muslims as well as the Constitution. On one hand, it is constitutionally wrong and on the other hand, Muslims are not going to benefit by this," Naqvi said.

"By injecting the cocaine of quota, Congress is conspiring to hijack the Muslim votes. We will not allow this dirty and dangerous game to succeed," he added.

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The decision of carving out a sub-quota within the OBC quota comes ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

It was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, paving the way for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for minorities as defined in section 2 (C) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) are notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the Act.

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