Cong communalising domestic politics; Left foreign policies

Hyderabad, Apr 19: BJP senior leader L K Advani today termed ''ominous'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ''silence'' over the demands of Muslim organisations on the issue of illegal immigrations from Bangladesh and demand for reservation for Muslims in Government jobs.

''I agree with Ms Sonia Gandhi that Left parties are communalising the country's foreign policy. But the Congress party is doing the very same thing with domestic affairs day after day,'' he charged at a press conference here.

Referring to a meeting between Dr Singh and a delegation of Muslim organisations led by the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in New Delhi yesterday, he said 'negative signals' had emanated from the meeting.

''As for the alleged harassment of Muslims in Assam is concerned, My party is for 100 per cent protection to them but no protection for Bangaldeshi infiltrators,'' he said, while opposing the alleged ''Congress-assisted demographic invasion from Bangaldesh''.

Coming out strongly against any religion-based reservation, he assured the Congress to go through the speeches of the founding fathers of the Constitution, including India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

''Politics of competitive minorityism is hurting both the nation and the minorities,'' Mr Advani said, criticising the Left parties for provoking Muslim organisations, which were upset with the Danish cartoon controversy, against US President George W Bush. Mr Bush had been invited to India by the very same Government supported by them, he said.

Expressing concern over 'rampant' religious conversions in the country under the UPA regime through inducements and coercion, Mr Advani, who was here as part of his 35-day Bharat Suraksha Yatra, called for a comprehensive legislation prohibiting such conversions.

The Constituent Assembly had rightly said there should be no prohibition on voluntary conversion, he pointed out.

Holding the Congress, which ruled the country for decades, responsible for the ills affecting the nation, including economic backwardness of the Muslims, he said the BJP's biggest achievement was the conversion of single party-dominant polity to a bipolar polity. Regional parties, which were scoffed at by the Congress, served an important purpose in the Indian polity, he added.

UNI