Punjab BJP leaders on Friday asked INDIA bloc partners Congress and AAP to clarify their stand on giving quota to Muslim communities from the existing OBC quota meant for the country's poor, Dalits, OBC and tribal.
BJP leaders said the INDIA bloc partner and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee had given OBC certificates to scores of Muslim communities by infringing upon the constitutional rights of the Dalit’s, Backwards and Tribal who have the rightful entitlement to the certificates. The Calcutta High Court, they said, has put a stop on the politics of appeasement of Mamta Banerjee by canceling all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010.
“Since AAP, Congress TMC and other are all part of the INDIA bloc, the AAP and Congress in Punjab should come clear on their stand on accommodating Muslims in the quota at the cost of the rightful claimants,” Sardar SS Channy, BJP Punjab state spokesperson, flanked by Kanwarbir Singh Manzil, state general secretary of the OBC Morcha Punjab BJP and State Media Head of the Punjab BJP Vineet Joshi said addressing a press conference here in Chandigarh today.
“All components of the INDIA alliance are working on this mentality and they want to deprive rights of Dalit, OBC and tribal by giving it to Muslims. As long as the BJP is there, this policy of appeasement at the cost of the rights of the OBC and Dalits will not be allowed,” Channy said. He informed that the Calcutta High Court has cancelled all OBC certificates from 2010 to 2024 taking cognizance of a PIL. The ruling Trinamool Congress's Mamata Banerjee government had issued all those certificates which the Court said had given the benefit of reservation to all the Muslims in the OBC class which was a sheer infringement of the spirit of the constitution.
“Why are the Punjab Congress and AAP silent on this? They should come clear on this issue. It’s a serious matter of depriving the rightful claimants of this reservation,” Vineet Joshi said. Mamta Banerjee wants to take away reservation from the backward class and wants to give it to the Muslims, he added.
Referring to Mamta Banerjee’s statement after the High Court verdict where she reportedly said ‘she does not accept the decision of the Calcutta HC and that the OBC reservation will continue’, Kanwarbir Manzil said “It shows the arrogance of Mamta Banerjee. The Congress and the AAP also suffer from this anti-Dali, anti OBC mindset and will replicate this model in Punjab as part of their Muslim appeasement policy.”
BJP leaders informed that in June 2023, the National Backward Class Commission (NCBC) found that Rohingya and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had received OBC certificates in West Bengal. The NCBC also found that Muslim OBC castes were more compared to Hindus in the state, although there is Hindu majority in West Bengal.
“Of the 179 castes in West Bengal that were given the status of OBC by Mamta Banerjee Government, 118 of them are from the Muslim community,” Kanwarbir Singh Manzil said, adding that the Congress did not give constitutional recognition to OBC commission for 40 years, a task that was accomplished by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress played similar tactics in states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In Karnataka, Congress tried OBC reservation to Muslims by adding Muslims to OBC quota, Channy said, adding that the Congress government finished reservation of OBC, Dalit and Tribal in the educational institutions like Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. “It is this TMC which snatched the OBCs reservation to give it to Muslims and is in a seat sharing agreement with the Congress and SP in Uttar Pradesh,” Channy said.
The BJP leaders cautioned the Punjab voters to be wary of the ill designs of the Congress and the AAP who will follow the same route as Mamata Banerjee has done in West Bengal. Punjab has the highest per capita population of the Dalits in the country and such ulterior motives of the Congress and AAP playing divisive politics will not be not being tolerated in Punjab, Channy said.
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