New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) With an apparent eye on the coming presidential election where Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati holds the key, both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and opposition leader Lal Kishen Advani Thursday endorsed her call for quotas for the upper castes poor.
“If there are ideas about the problems faced by poor children from ‘other’ sections of the community, they should also be taken on board,” the prime minister said, adding that his government was committed to empowering dalits, tribals, minorities and women.
“I welcome the comments of UP Chief Minister Mayawati that the poor among the forward castes and communities deserved the benefit of affirmative action,” Advani said.
Both spoke at a conference here on the empowerment of dalits and minorities.
Their comments came amid mounting speculation about the potential candidates for the presidential election, which is due in July. With Mayawati yet to come out with her choice, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are both keen on her support.
With Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party having about 41,000 votes, it could well tilt the balance.
At the conference, Singh sought “new ideas” on how the state could be more effective in achieving social and economic empowerment of all sections of the society.
He also spoke about his plans to uplift economically and educationally backward areas with large representation of minorities.
“We will devise focused plans for bringing these backward areas at par with the rest of the country,” he said
Referring to the report of the Sachar Committee on the status of Muslims, Singh said it had revealed inequities in access to education at all levels, but particularly in higher education.
“There are sharp and important regional differences. States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have a much better track record in empowering through education. Educational deprivation among minorities differs from state to state. Hence we need state-specific strategies and interventions.”
The prime minister also promised plans to bring backward areas at par with the rest of the country saying “there are many districts, blocks and towns with a large representation of minorities that are economically and educationally backward.”
Also at the conference were former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal, the chief ministers of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and MPs and MLAs.