BJP will not allow OBC quota for Muslims in Haryana, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday accused the Congress of being anti-backward classes and said if the party comes to power in Haryana, it will snatch the reservation for them and give it to Muslims.

Addressing a 'Backward Classes Samman Sammelan' here, Shah referred to the Kaka Kalekar Commission formed in the 1950s to provide reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and said the Congress did not implement its recommendations for years.

"In 1980, (the then prime minister) Indira Gandhi put the Mandal Commission in cold storage. In 1990, when it was accepted, Rajiv Gandhi gave a two-and-a-half-hour speech and opposed OBC reservation," the Union minister said.

"In Karnataka, the Congress snatched reservation for backward classes and gave it to Muslims. The same will happen here if they come (to power) here," Shah said.

"I want to assure you that we will not allow Muslim reservation in Haryana," he said.

He asserted that the BJP will form the government in Haryana with a full majority.

The Haryana Assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year.

Shah said the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini-led government recently increased the annual income limit for the creamy layer of OBCs from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh.

Announcing the decision on June 24, Saini had said that it would provide "significant benefits" in employment for the OBC category.

The chief minister had also announced that the reservation for the backward classes in Group-A and Group-B posts, currently at 15 per cent, would be increased to 27 per cent, "in line with the Central government's policy".

Targeting senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the Congress' 'Haryana Maange Hisab' campaign, Shah said, "Hooda sahab, you have to give an account of 10 years of misgovernance and depriving Haryana of development."

The Congress on Monday launched the 'Haryana Maange Hisab' campaign, under which it will target the ruling BJP on several fronts, including unemployment and law and order, ahead of the assembly polls.

Last week, the opposition party had released a "charge sheet" against the state government, claiming it had failed on several fronts like employment generation, law and order and protecting farmers.

This was Shah's second visit to Haryana in less than a month. On June 29, he had addressed BJP leaders and workers during a meeting of the party's extended state executive in Panchkula.