Hyderabad: Stating that “communal reservations” will divide the country, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday asserted that the BJP-led NDA government would oppose the 12 per cent reservations to Muslim minorities proposed by the TRS government.
He said that people want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rule the country for 10 years to accelerate development and termed former Union minister P. Chidambaram’s charge that the Centre was controlling the media as “absurd and baseless,”.
Mr Venkaiah Naidu also denied any link with the MIM and asserted that the BJP’s recent victory in four states, especially Uttar Pradesh, was the public stamp of approval of Modi’s policies and development mantra.
Referring to YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy meeting Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on defected MLAs taken into the Chandrababu Naidu Cabinet, Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that such MLAs should resign and contest again.
“They (the TRS government) have every right to propose. We have every right to oppose. We are opposed to any “communal reservations”. It’s not because of TRS. Rajasekhar Reddy brought it, we opposed it. When Chandrababu Naidu proposed it, we opposed it. When TRS brings it, we will oppose it,” he said at a press conference here.
The Union minister added, “Communal reservations will divide the country. You give reservation on the basis of backwardness, you give reservations based on economic backwardness, we will support you. There are poor people among the Muslims. Go to Old City you will realise. If they are socially, educationally and economically backward, they should get reservations, but not due to their religion.”
“Every state government is free to bring in a law, but this law will not stand legal scrutiny when the founding fathers refused religion-based reservation,” the Union minister said.
