Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

City police foil BJP rally

Special Correspondent

‘Muslim quota to sow seeds of communal divide’

Photo: G.Krishnaswamy

Courting arrest: BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya taken into custody while proceeding for ‘Chalo Assembly’ at Indira Park.

HYDERABAD: Police foiled the BJP’s plan to take out a ‘Chalo Assembly’ rally and arrested scores of its activists and leaders, including president Bandaru Dattatreya and former Union Minister Ch.Vidyasagar Rao, near Indira Park on Tuesday. The party had called for the rally to protest the Government’s decision to provide four per cent reservations to Muslims in employment and educational institutions.

Former BJP president M.Venkaiah Naidu said the decision would be a challenge to the nation and alleged it would sow the “seeds of communal divide”.

He accused the Government of providing reservations to Muslims for diverting people’s attention from its failure to solve their problemsand added that the reservations would not stand legal scrutiny , he pointed out.

Accusing the Congress and Telugu Desam of indulging in competitive vote-bank politics, he said the decision should be nipped in the bud as there was a likelihood of other States emulating it. Mr. Naidu recalled that the issue of reservation was considered by the Constituent Assembly’s Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights. It had felt that in their own interest and in the interests of the country the statutory reservation of seats for religious minorities should be abolished. Mr. Dattatreya said the agitation would be intensified as the ‘unconstitutional’ decision of the Government was not in the country’s interest. Mr. Rao observed that the Congress regime would be shown the door by the people in the next elections on the reservations issue.

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