The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : "Quota for Muslims won't help"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

"Quota for Muslims won't help"

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 7. The BJP general secretary, Arun Jaitley, has flayed the decision of the State Government to provide religion-based reservation saying, "the remedy is worse than the disease they seek to cure."

Speaking at a conference organised by the legal cell of the State unit and later talking to reporters here on Saturday, Mr. Jaitley, who was the Law Minister in the NDA Government, said reservation on the basis of religion would create more problems than solving them. "Our constitutional and political systems never envisaged reservation on the basis of religion," he added.

`Focus on rapid growth'

He said Backward Classes in respect of all religions were part of OBCs and advised the Government to concentrate on "rapid growth", which, perhaps, was the best pill to eradicate poverty. He accused the Congress of using a section of society as a ``vote bank" and instrument of political power. He said: "To divide a society on the basis of religion is the worst form of communalism."

The BJP leader also came down heavily on the UPA Government's move to repeal POTA saying that even the most liberal democracies like the US and Britain have tough laws to deal with terrorism. Justifying the need to retain it on the statute, he said there was no substitute to POTA in the ordinary law to combat terrorist acts.

Defends POTA

He said that there was no law other than POTA that defined terrorism. Certain provisions to deal with terrorism such as declaring the funding of terrorists as an offence, confiscating terrorist's property, banning terrorist organisations and empowering the police intercept communications were incorporated in POTA alone. He said the country had sacrificed the lives of 70,000 people and two former Prime Ministers.

Stating that the problem could not be tackled with velvet gloves, he demanded that human right organisations, which espoused the cause of the "underground", declare their sources of funding.

The former Chairman, Bar Council of India, D.V. Subba Rao, also criticised the move to repeal POTA and providing reservation on the basis of religion. He said POTA was a "child's play" when compared to Patriot Act of the US. Britain, too, had passed laws to deal with terrorism, he pointed out.

The State BJP president, N. Indrasena Reddy, and the State BJP Legal Cell convenor, N. Ramachandra Rao, also spoke.

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