J D (S) opposes Ordinance on office of profit

New Delhi, Mar 22: Closing ranks with the Samajwadi Party, a UPA ally, the Janata Dal (Secular) today strongly opposed the Congress move to come out with an Ordinance to protect Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her ilk on the issue of occupying office of profit and said the government should have come out with such a legislation before Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan was disqualified.

J D (S) Secretary General K Danish Ali told newspersons that the UPA Government's move to define the office of profit and save MPs like Mrs Gandhi was not proper as it could have been done when Mrs Bachchan's membership was in trouble.

Stating that there were attempts to question J D (S) President H D Deve Gowda's credentials as a secular leader, Mr Ali said Mr Gowda need not learn lessons of secularism from anyone. While the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh is struggling to provide Muslim reservation in government jobs and education it was the government headed Mr Gowda which provided four per cent reservation exclusively for Muslims without the issue taken to any Court of law.

''Even today, the Supreme Court has appreciated the Karnataka Government's responsible role in dealing with the Hubli Idgah ground issue,'' he said.

The Congress was in power for over 45 years in the country, but the status of Muslims was still in 'head count' and there was no honest effort to provide reservation. The Congress' mere statement on minority status to Aligarh Muslim University had ended up in the matter reaching the Court, Mr Ali said.

He said the J D (S) had strength and resolve to settle its crisis by itself and the party would prove every critic wrong.

UNI