BJP assails govt's special recruitment drives for minorities

New Delhi, Jul 26 (UNI) Taking strong exception to the special drives for recruiting minorities in security and para-military establishments, the BJP termed them ''attempts to woo the vote bank'' and cautioned the government that these could develop into an instrument to let 'jihadi' and terrorist elements infiltrate the Armed Forces.

BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra noted that Home Minister Shivraj Patil had given a clean chit to all the madarsas in Parliament whereas the activities of many of these, located on Indo-Pakistan, Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Nepal borders, had given rise to suspicion. ''With the Home Minister giving them a clean chit, it would only compound problems for the agencies keeping a tab on the functioning of these organisations,'' he said, at a press conference in the precincts of Parliament.

The Intelligence agencies used to keep an eye on the activities of Muslim Madarsas and the clean chit by the Home Minister himself would mean an indirect instruction to 'shut their eyes' on their activities at a time when even Pakistan had banned foreigners in their madrasas, he added.

''The Committee, headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar, is doing the maximum damage to the Muslim cause by seeking a head count in defence forces, judiciary and non-judicial recruitments,'' Mr Malhotra said, adding that his party was not against Muslim recruitments in the general manner but to recruit members of one religion only would send 'wrong signals.' Mr Malhotra said the country had already been put on the alert by the office of the National Security Advisor, who had warned the state CMs and the police chiefs about the possibility of two LeT cadres infiltrating defence establishments. ''This is a dangerous trend and the government should be concerned about it,'' he said.

Noting that the fears of the Opposition about UPA's ''vote bank'' politics were 'well founded', he said there was just one deportation of a Bangladeshi among in the 2.5 crore settlers who made India their new home after the Supreme Court declared Illegal Migrants Detection of Tribunal (IMDT) Act ultra vires. ''The attitude of the government towards terrorism and its perpetrators was also a matter of concern,'' he alleged.

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