Congress in quota controversy again

After Law Minister Salman Khurshid, it was the turn of Congress leader and Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma to reignite the row over quota for minorities in Uttar Pradesh by promising sub-quotas for Muslims if the party is voted to power in the state.

The opposition immediately criticised the remark. Even its key ally Trinamool Congress slammed the Congress for “fooling” the country.

Addressing a political rally at Kayamganj assembly constituency in Farrukhabad district Wednesday, Verma said: “Muslims don’t have their homes; they don’t have jobs and 70 percent of them work as labourers. Non-Congress governments in the state have not done anything for their betterment.

“We will make sure that quota for them is increased if the Congress comes to power in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Verma’s remarks came only a day after Law Minister Salman Khurshid apologised to the Election Commission for assuring sub-quota for backward sections of minorities in Uttar Pradesh, where elections are under way.

Clarifying his remarks, Verma Thursday said: “I said in Farrukhabad that Muslims have not got their due and the central government has made reservation of 4.5 percent for them and it needs to be increased.

“If Election Commission serves me a notice I will reply to it,” he told Times Now news channel.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said: “There is nothing wrong in what he (Verma) has said as increasing quota for Muslims is part of the Congress manifesto.

“Talking about things in party’s manifesto is not a violation of election model code of conduct,” he added.

In New Delhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, however, said all Congress leaders should use restrained language during poll campaign.

“This applies to me, to Salman Khurshid and also to Beni Prasad Verma,” she told reporters.

“We should respect the Constitution. We all have to work under democratic norms and use the language of political restraint,” she added.

But, Trinamool Congress leader Sultan Ahmed said Verma was violating the model code of conduct for polls.

“The Congress leaders are trying to befool the country. No one will listen to their nonsense,” said Ahmed, Minister of State for Tourism.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “deafening silence” on the issue.

“Had the prime minister acted against Law Minister Salman Khurshid, who got into trouble with the Election Commission over a similar promise and had to apologise, nobody would have dared repeat it,” BJP leader Balbir Punj said.

“The silence of the prime minister is deafening and he should open his mouth about what he thinks. Had he acted on the Election Commission’s letter against Khurshid, nobody would have dared to repeat it,” he said.

“One minister after another taking on the Election Commission cannot happen without the approval of party president Sonia Gandhi,” he added.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the poll panel to take “immediate” action against Verma.

Political parties are aggressively courting Muslims in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh as they constitute 19 percent of the total voters.

Khurshid, while addressing an election rally last month in the Farrukhabad assembly constituency from where his wife Louis is seeking election, had said that if the Congress comes to power in Uttar Pradesh it would provide nine percent job quota to minorities.