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By Deepak Kumar Rath
Reacting sharply to the Andhra Pradesh government'sdecision to provide 5 per cent reservation to Muslims in government jobs and admission to educational institutions, VHP International General Secretary Dr Praveen Togadia said, ?The Andhra Pradesh government has not only violated the Constitution but also the directive of the Supreme Court?. The VHP strongly opposed this decision, he said.
Secretary of the VHP, Dr Surendra Jain later told Organiser that ?this is initiated in Andhra Pradesh and later on it would be implemented throughout India?. He said that this order is immoral, communal, illegal, separatist and in violation of the decision of the Supreme Court.
Articles 15(1), 16(1) and 16(2) clearly state that there cannot be any reservation on the basis of religion. The definition of backwardness is based on social and economic backwardness, not on religion.
?In 1909, the British government gave a separate Muslim electorate. Afterwards, in 1932, they declared communal award due to which the separatist tendency in Muslim society flared up and resulted in bloodshed and Partition of India,? Dr Jain said. After Andhra Pradesh government'sdecision, on 14, July 2004 in Enadu-Urdu channel, Muslim leaders demanded reservation for 27 per cent on all India basis.
The VHP leader said, ?This communal order will prove as a stepping stone for the demand of one more partition of India.? He said that the Apex Court has already declared that reservation on the bases of religion cannot be given.
Moreover, without increasing the limit of 50 per cent fixed by the Apex Court, this order (AP government?s) would snatch the right of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Class people. The VHP leader said, ?The employment opportunity of the youth of the society would be reduced and it is an open robbery of their right.?
Dr Jain said, ?The VHP has decided to oppose this order of the Andhra government and we have decided to observe an anti-Muslim reservation week from 16 July 2004 to 23 July, 2004. In this week the VHP will present memorandum to the Hon?ble President of India through District Magistrate, in which there would be a request to the Hon?ble President, to direct the Andhra Pradesh government to withdraw this order.
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