Oppose divisive plank

On the eve of the 54th meeting of the National Development Council in Delhi called to approve the 11th Five-Year Plan for the period 2008 to 2013, BJP national president Shri Rajnath Singh charged the central government with trying to sow the seeds with discord, disharmony and disintegration by seeking to incorporate the aspect of communal budgeting through moves to reserve 15 per cent funds for the minorities.

In a press statement Shri Rajnath Singh said that it is indeed unfortunate that under the Congress-led UPA government, a critical vision document that sets the tone and direction for national growth and development for the next five years, is now being treated as a tool of political appeasement. By seeking to incorporate aspects of communal budgeting into the Five-Year Plan, the BJP president said, such a move would give a fillip to competitive communal demands for budgetary allocations and in the process the holistic approach to national development would become a casualty.

Shri Rajnath Singh said that the BJP has always been of the view that every segment of society must become equitable partners and beneficiaries of national growth and prosperity irrespective of religion, caste, creed or class. However, a communal approach to budgetary allocation would only accentuate the competitive and communal politics of appeasement. He charged the Congress-led UPA government with adopting such a short-sighted approach to national development for the sake of votes.

Shri Rajnath Singh said such undue haste in implementing suggestions for adopting a communal approach to national budgeting was also not desirable in light of questions being raised about the validity of certain inputs and data behind the Sachar Committee Report which in itself is also against the very spirit of the Constitution. He charged the Congress-led UPA government with adopting this approach to cover up its own dismal failure on all fronts of governance and achieving national priorities.

The BJP president said that if at the meeting of the NDC, any overt or covert move is taken up to incorporate communal budgeting in the process of national planning in general and the 11th Five-Year Plan in particular, then all BJP-ruled states would firmly oppose it.