SP for reservation for Muslims in Parliament

Lucknow, July 18: Demanding reservation for Muslims in state assemblies and Parliament according to their population, Samajwadi Party today said it would ensure this while distributing tickets to members of the community in the coming Uttar Pradesh assmebly polls.

''It is high time that Muslims are given representation in the legislature as well as in government jobs in proportion to their population,'' SP MP and general secretary Beni Prasad Verma told reporters here.

Strongly reacting to former Prime Minister V P Singh's demand that Muslims be given separate chunk within the 27 per cent quota to the backwards, he said Mr Singh should have done it when the Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented.

''Although it is true Muslims have not been given their due during the last so many years, it is mere political rhetoric of the former PM to have demanded a separate quota for the community, the SP MP said.

''There are many states like Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the Muslim population is high, but its representation in various fields is dismal. Even Congress has only one Muslim MP in A R Antulay from Maharashtra,'' he pointed.

The senior SP leader also demanded that economically backward persons of the upper caste also be given reservation alongwith Backward Classes.

Mr Verma said his party was alive to issues related to minorities and a commission was in the pipeline, which would identify and the redress the problems of the minorities.

UNI