Khaleequr Rahman: Dig Vijaya Singh ji justifies 9% reservation to Mi...

Khaleequr Rahman: Dig Vijaya Singh ji justifies 9% reservation to Mi...: Dig Vijaya Singh ji Senior Congress leader and General Secretary Incharge of UP Shri Digvijay Singh ji on Saturday accused the BJP of polar...

Dig Vijaya Singh ji justifies 9% reservation to Minorities

Dig Vijaya Singh ji

Senior Congress leader and General Secretary Incharge of UP Shri Digvijay Singh ji on Saturday accused the BJP of polarising elections in UP and said its decision to field Uma Bharti shows its "total bankruptcy" of leaders in the state.  

Popularly and affectionately known as Diggy Raja says that "I must say, that in all this one thing that comes out clearly is that there is a total bankruptcy of leaders in BJP's UP unit. That is why they had to import a leader from Madhya Pradesh.....But we don't take her seriously," The Congress leader charged the BJP with deliberately polarising the elections in UP as it has no issues. Shri Dig Vijaya Singh said he "does not mind" Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi campaigning in UP.

On the reservation issue, Diggy Raja, who is in the thick of the Congress election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, insisted that the 4.5 per cent quota within OBC quota was not religion-based reservation but merely a sub-categorisation" to ensure that backward sections within the minorities got their due.

"The 4.5 per cent reservation is a sub-categorisation within OBC quota so that backwards among the minorities are 'ensured' that they get their fair share. It is not based on religion. As it is, the backwards among the minorities are getting reservation within the OBC quota. The 4.5 per cent quota has been given to ensure that these backward minorities get their due share," he said.

When asked what was the need for a separate quota within quota if backwards among minorities were already benefitting from OBC reservations, he claimed that though the backward castes among minorities have been included within the 27 per cent for OBCs, they have not been the real beneficiaries and this 4.5 per cent quota would help them.

Shri Dig Vijaya Singh denied that this decision and its timing were aimed at winning Muslim votes. However, he agreed that since the percentage of OBCs in other minority communities- Christians, Parsis and Sikhs, among others- was small, the biggest beneficiaries would be Muslims.  "The Sikhs have an OBC population but their number is minimal," he said.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister also justified Law Minister Salman Kurshid's promise of 9 per cent reservation to minorities in place of the 4.5 per cent. "The 4.5 per cent quota within quota is for backwards among minorities across the country. Muslims constitute 13 per cent of the country's population. Mr.Salman Kurshid was talking about minorities in Uttar Pradesh where Muslims are 18 per cent," Diggy Raja said.  The centre has given Rs 7,000 crore package to weavers. "The package is for all weavers whether in the handloom or power loom sector," he said.  Around 95 per cent of the weavers in UP belong to the Muslim community.