Minority reservation a betrayal of nation: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said attempts to provide reservation to minorities amounted to betrayal of the nation and were an insult to framers of the constitution.Addressing an election rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in Hyderabad, Modi called for efforts to defeat any such move in order to protect the country’s unity.Hitting out at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for its move to increase reservation for minorities to 12%, Modi said he was surprised how the power-hungry were pushing for religion-based quota for the sake of remaining in power.Pointing out that the issue of religion-based reservation was discussed in the Constituent Assembly, the prime minister said the great personalities decided against it in the interest of the country’s unity.Modi wondered from where the reservation for minorities would come when the Supreme Court had already fixed the upper limit of total reservation at 50%.“They will take away the rights of Dalits, STs (Scheduled Tribes) and OBCs (Other Backward Communities) from backdoor. Will you allow this crime,” he asked the participants at the rally.Telangana Assembly last year passed a resolution to increase reservation for minorities in jobs and education from 4% to 12% and it was sent to the central government.The TRS had blamed Modi for the delay in implementing its poll promise made in 2014.Modi also came down heavily on TRS, saying it destroyed Telangana the way Congress destroyed the nation.Countering Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that the TRS was the ‘B’ team of the BJP, Modi said the TRS and Congress had common nature, character, thinking and policies, making them the natural allies.The prime minister recalled that during the Karnataka Assembly elections, Gandhi used to the dub Janata Dal (Secular) as the ‘B’ team of BJP but after the elections, the Congress formed the government with the JD(S) to keep the BJP out of power.Modi claimed that the TRS and Congress had already started planning to prevent the BJP from coming to power in Telangana.He described dynasty politics as a threat to democracy.Modi said barring BJP, all major parties in fray in Telangana elections were parties with dynasty politics and family rule. He said the Congress, TRS, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) all were family-centric parties.