BJP will not allow religion-based reservation in the country: Amit Shah

In a stinging criticism of the Congress for its proposal to give a 10 per cent quota for Muslims, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that there will be no religion-based reservation in the country.

Addressing an election rally in Palamu, he said the Muslim quota was a Congress conspiracy, IANS reported. “I want to warn Rahul Gandhi that your conspiracy to give 10 per cent reservation to Muslims will never succeed.”

“If such a Muslim quota is created, the biggest losers will be OBCs, Dalits and Tribals as their share of reservation will be reduced,” Shah warned.

"There is no provision for reservation on the basis of religion in the Constitution. We can never give reservation to any particular religion," he said.

"In Maharashtra, a group of Muslim clerics gave Congress a memorandum that Muslims should be given 10 per cent reservation and the state president of Congress party agreed to help them achieve this," Shah said

"I want to warn Rahul Gandhi from here. Rahul Baba, whatever conspiracy you have in your mind, as long as Bharatiya Janata Party is there, minorities will not get a reservation based on religion in this country..." news agency ANI quoted him saying at the rally. 

He attacked the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for the state government’s conspiracy to allow cross-border infiltration for vote bank politics. 

Shah also slammed the INDIA bloc for corruption, which was exposed by the recent recovery of over Rs 300 crore from a Congress MP’s house and the seizure of Rs 30 crore from the home of an aide of Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam.

He also lashed out at the Congress for allegedly waving fake copies of the Constitution at public meetings. “The copies of the Constitution they wave at the public have blank pages. Rahul Gandhi has insulted B.R. Ambedkar by waving a fake copy of the Constitution and reduced the revered document to a joke,” he claimed.

The Home Minister also trained his guns on Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over Article 370, saying neither the Congress leader nor his next four generations would be able to bring back Article 370, whose removal has fully integrated Jammu and Kashmir with the country under the Modi government.

Voting to elect a new 81-member Assembly in Jharkhand will be held in two phases, on November 13 and November 20. The results will be declared on November 23.