Criticising the Samajwadi Party for ditching Muslims, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati said the State Government’s decision to reserve 20 per cent benefits of development schemes for the minority community was nothing but a poll gimmick.
“The State Cabinet decision to reserve 20 per cent benefits in development schemes for Muslims is a farce. It is an attempt to mislead the poor Muslims in the name of Sachar Committee recommendations when in its election manifesto, the Samajwadi Party had promised separate reservations for Muslims as per their population,” Mayawati said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The BSP chief said that the SP had said in its manifesto that “in the light of Sachar Committee recommendations, the Muslims would be given reservation by treating them as socially, financially and economically backward” and now the Akhilesh Yadav Government was claiming to have fulfilled the poll promise though in its 15-month rule it had done nothing to bring Muslims in the backward category.
“The SP announcement is an attempt to mislead the members of the minority community,” she added.
Mayawati said the SP had also promised to set up Government educational institutions in minority dominated districts of the State but had done nothing so far in this regard. “The only Urdu-Arabic-Persian university functioning in the State was set up by the BSP in the name of Kanshi Ram,” the former Chief Minister added.
The BSP supremo also alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched by the SP and the saffron parties to spark communal disturbances in the State in the name of Chaurasi Kosi Yatra at Ayodhya.