KOLKATA: The policy of reservation for minorities being pursued by the Left Front is a cunning ploy to garner Muslim votes and can well culminate into a second partition of Bengal. This was the view expressed by the All India Legal Aid Forum at the Press meet in Calcutta Press Club.
The speakers were the General Secretary of All India Legal Aid Forum Shri Jaydeep Mukherjee, former bureaucrat and ex-MP Shri Bikram Sarkar, ex-IPS Shri BP Saha and Justice RN Ray. All the speakers unanimously condemned the CPI(M)-led Left Front government’s policy to appease the Muslims following the recommendation of Justice Raganath Misra Commission.
Shri Jaydeep Mukherjee pointed out that the nation has already been divided on the basis of two-nation theory, still Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is all out to appease the Muslims by accepting the Misra Commission recommendations and pressing for 10 per cent reservation for the Muslims. This violates the Constitution which has fixed the ceiling for reservation at 50 per cent. Reservations already exist and further reservation will transgress this ceiling. Moreover, the Constitutional Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has quashed the 4 per cent reservation appeal by the Andhra Pradesh government declaring the policy as illegal, he emphasised. Shri Mukherjee also questioned the legality of reservation on the basis of religion in a country that is constitutionally secular. Terming Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as second Jinnah, Shri Mukherjee wondered why the CPI(M) is not interested in the upliftment of the poor who really deserve facilities of reservation. Shri Mukherjee issued ultimatum that the day the Left Front government issues notification to implement the Ranganath Misra Commission’s recommendations, a movement of mass resistance will be galvanised with the support of the Hindus of Bengal. He even threatened the government to face mass suicide in front of the Writers’ Buildings
While Shri Bikram Sarkar pointed out that even Rezzak Mollah was opposed to the reservation policy, Shri BP Saha accused Justice Misra of working in cahoots with the Congress government at the Centre.He also alleged that Forward Bloc and RSP are wooing the Muslims for votes. Justice RN Ray said that the CPI(M) is fast loosing its support among the Muslims
(VSK Kolkata)
