New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday took a major decision on
women's reservation by announcing it would reserve 33 percent of
seats for them in the party's organizational structure.
On day one of the two-day national council meet here, BJP president
Rajnath Singh moved a resolution seeking 33 percent reservation for
women in the party cadre from the local committees level to the
central working committee. A committee headed by party leader Sushma
Swaraj had made this proposal.
However, the party has not taken a decision on women's reservation
in its parliamentary board.
Rajnath Singh's speech left little doubt that Hindutva, national
security and development would be the party's main agenda for
elections. These issues had helped the BJP win the Gujarat elections
in December.
Hindutva was the underlying theme of Singh's address. He criticized
the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's
proposal for reservation in jobs on religious lines, the idea of
quota for minorities in bank loans and the Ram Setu issue.
"The word 'minority' is creating a problem in the manner in which it
is understood now. I think there is a need to redefine 'minority' as
it is harming secularism. For the sake of vote bank politics, some
political parties are indulging in minority appeasement," Singh
said.
The BJP president criticized the UPA suggestion for reservation for
Muslims in jobs (based on the Sachar Committee recommendations),
saying caste-based reservations were welcome but those based on
religion were unconstitutional.
"The UPA is also saying that banks should give 15 percent quota to
Muslims while giving loans," Singh said.
Singh asked: "How could the prime minister say that Muslims have
first claim to national resources? This policy of divide and rule
was first practiced by the British."
Singh accused the UPA government of earmarking 90 minority-dominated
districts for a special economic package. He also pulled up the UPA
government on its stand on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's book
"Dwikandito", saying: "A minister wanted her to apologize for what
she wrote against Muslims."
Singh said the government has failed to submit an affidavit to the
apex court on the Ram Setu, also known as Adam's Bridge, off the
Tamil Nadu coast that many Hindus believe to be the mythological
bridge referred to in the Ramayana. "They are questioning the
existence of Ram. Even Mahatma Gandhi believed in Hindutva and said
he wanted 'Ram Rajya'. His last words were 'Hey Ram'," Singh said.
Other than Hindutva, development and internal security also found a
mention at the conclave.
"The UPA government has either stopped or slowed down the
infrastructure development projects and policies initiated by the
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. We need a
national policy on such matters and a change in government should
not affect them," Singh said.
Blaming the union government for being soft on terrorism, Singh said
the defence forces had lost their morale due to this. "The UPA
government removed the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). This has
led to increase in terrorist activities. There have been blasts in
Faizabad, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. And the CRPF group
centre was attacked in Rampur," he said.
The BJP president also called for a special package for Kashmiri
Pandits and abolition of Article 370, which gives special status to
Jammu and Kashmir. The state goes to the polls this year.
He called for a strong foreign policy, especially with regard to
neighboring countries.
The post-lunch session was dedicated to the chief ministers of
states where BJP is in power. Here Gujarat chief minister Narendra
Modi was the star. Sensing this, the party invited Modi to speak
only after all other BJP chief ministers had spoken. And people
drifted out as soon as he finished.
The party also passed a resolution on agriculture in the second
session. The main issues of concern for the party are the present
loan policies for farmers, minimum support price, food imports, and
outdated land acquisition and land use laws.
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