VHP to stir against move on quota for Muslims

KOCHI Stating that religion-based reservation will divide the nation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday said it would launch a massive agitation against the Centre’s move to provide  six per cent reservation for Muslims in the 27 per cent OBC quota. Addressing mediapersons here, VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia said:  ‘’Some Muslims are already a part of the OBC list. Over three commissions have been set up for Muslims and yet there is a move to give them religion-based quota from the OBC quota’’. Noting that the strategies for the agitation would be finalised in the coming days, he said a massive movement would be launched for protecting our bread and butter, job, reservation and the Constitution. The OBC quota is being misused depriving the real rightful poor Hindus from getting justice. Togadia alleged that the Centre’s next move would be to snatch the SC quota and give it to the  Christians. He also said the government would even go to the extent of amending the Constitution to take away the educational facilities, jobs, loans and lives from the Hindus and give it to the Muslims and the Christians. ‘’So the VHP appeals to all Hindus, SCs and Other Backward Classes, ST, nomadic tribes and others to stand together and defeat the Muslim and Christian votebank,’’ he said.   ‘’We have adopted a resolution demanding that all recommendations in the Ranganath Mishra Commission and the Sachar Committee should be completely rejected as they are detrimental to communal harmony and social justice,’’ he said. The resolution adopted at the VHP All-India  Board of Trustees and Governing Council Meeting further said the Andhra Pradesh Government and Aligarh Muslim University had made similar attempts in the past, but their decisions were struck down by the High Courts concerned. It said that as Muslims and Christians did not believe in casteism, they should not be given the benefits under the caste reservation. The resolution also said that all those who demand, promote or propogate reservations based on religion should be prosecuted for treason as the Constitution opposes religion- based reservations.  Togadia said the three-day meet would discuss all national issues. With regard to Kerala, he said the meet would discuss all issues related to the state as large inputs  say that jehadi fundamentalists in the state were having control over the political power. It is not just for Kerala that strategies would be developed but for Jammu, Western UP, North Bengal and North Bihar where Hindus were facing hardships, he said.  Earlier, VHP international president Ashok Singhal inaugurated the national delegates’ meet and international conference.  In his speech, he said that all the Hindus in the country should unite for opposing the hardships that they were facing.