By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday took a major decision on women’s reservation by announcing it would reserve 33 percent of seats for them in the party’s organisational structure.
On day one of the two-day national council meet here, BJP president Rajnath Singh moved a resolution seeking 33 percent reservation for women in the party cadre from the local committees level to the central working committee. A committee headed by party leader Sushma Swaraj had made this proposal.
However, the party has not taken a decision on women’s reservation in its parliamentary board.
Rajnath Singh’s speech left little doubt that Hindutva, national security and development would be the party’s main agenda for elections. These issues had helped the BJP win the Gujarat elections in December.
Hindutva was the underlying theme of Singh’s address. He criticised the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s proposal for reservation in jobs on religious lines, the idea of quota for minorities in bank loans and the Ram Setu issue.
“The word ‘minority’ is creating a problem in the manner in which it is understood now. I think there is a need to redefine ‘minority’ as it is harming secularism. For the sake of vote bank politics, some political parties are indulging in minority appeasement,” Singh said.
The BJP president criticised the UPA suggestion for reservation for Muslims in jobs (based on the Sachar Committee recommendations), saying caste-based reservations were welcome but those based on religion were unconstitutional.
“The UPA is also saying that banks should give 15 percent quota to Muslims while giving loans,” Singh said.
Singh asked: “How could the prime minister say that Muslims have first claim to national resources? This policy of divide and rule was first practised by the British.”
Singh accused the UPA government of earmarking 90 minority-dominated districts for a special economic package. He also pulled up the UPA government on its stand on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s book “Dwikandito”, saying: “A minister wanted her to apologise for what she wrote against Muslims.”
Singh said the government has failed to submit an affidavit to the apex court on the Ram Setu, also known as Adam’s Bridge, off the Tamil Nadu coast that many Hindus believe to be the mythological bridge referred to in the Ramayana. “They are questioning the existence of Ram. Even Mahatma Gandhi believed in Hindutva and said he wanted ‘Ram Rajya’. His last words were ‘Hey Ram’,” Singh said.
Other than Hindutva, development and internal security also found a mention at the conclave.
“The UPA government has either stopped or slowed down the infrastructure development projects and policies initiated by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. We need a national policy on such matters and a change in government should not affect them,” Singh said.
Blaming the union government for being soft on terrorism, Singh said the defence forces had lost their morale due to this. “The UPA government removed the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). This has led to increase in terrorist activities. There have been blasts in Faizabad, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. And the CRPF group centre was attacked in Rampur,” he said.
The BJP president also called for a special package for Kashmiri Pandits and abolition of Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state goes to the polls this year.
He called for a strong foreign policy, especially with regard to neighbouring countries.
The post-lunch session was dedicated to the chief ministers of states where BJP is in power. Here Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was the star. Sensing this, the party invited Modi to speak only after all other BJP chief ministers had spoken. And people drifted out as soon as he finished.
The party also passed a resolution on agriculture in the second session. The main issues of concern for the party are the present loan policies for farmers, minimum support price, food imports, and outdated land acquisition and land use laws.