Quota for Muslims unpatriotic: BJP

Launching a fresh attack on the Congress on reservation of jobs for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP today said the decision was "unpatriotic", intending to divide the country on religious lines.

"The Congress move (reserving government jobs for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh) is not only unconstitutional, undemocratic and unethical but also unpatriotic," BJP general secretary Rajnath Singh said.

He accused the Congress of playing politics of religion and said "any step that divides the country on sectarian lines is unpatriotic" as was the decision of new government in Andhra Pradesh.

"In fact, the move is anti-poor. The economically backward sections among the community were already availing of reservation. This will only benefit the richer sections of the Muslims in the state," he added.

On "detoxification" of text books written during the NDA government, Singh said "de-toxification is a wrong word. It should be kept in mind that, in fact, we had undertaken the detoxification exercise."

"The present government is ignoring India's glorious history, tradition and heritage. The so-called secularists are retoxifying it after we had cleaned," he said.

Asked if there was any fresh thinking on ram temple issue after the brainstorming session in Goa, the BJP leader said "the NDA government was close to finding an amicable solution to the problem. It now remains to be seen what congress wants "" whether they want to solve it (Ayodhya issue) or hope to take political mileage out of such a sensitive matter."

To a question whether the BJP was returning to the Hindutva fold, Singh said "it was not at all a question of going back to the ideology as the party saw no difference between Hindutva, Indianness and cultural nationalism."

"And those who have a problem even after the Supreme Court decision should knock at the doors of the apex court again," he said.

Hindutva meant justice to all and developing a feeling of fraternity in the society, Singh said.

On the impact of Shibu Soren's issue on the electoral fortunes of the BJP, Singh, who is in-charge of the party in Jharkhand, exuded confidence about victory in the coming elections.

His party was being wrongly blamed for the arrest as it was a matter between court and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and the state government had no role in it, he said.

"The Congress, in fact, is the real guilty party for making Soren, accused in the murder of 10 people, a minister and the Prime Minister did not sack him even after the issuance of arrest warrant," he said.