Sachar Committee report shouldn't be the basis for reservation

New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) Accusing the UPA government and the Congress for their alleged efforts to appease Muslims to remain in power, the BJP today said the Sachar Committee report should not be used as a launching pad by the government for providing religion based reservations in the country.

BJP Spokesman Arun Jaitley, commenting on the submission of the report of Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee on status of Muslim minority in the country to the government, said the party (BJP) would only be able to comment on it once it went through the contents.

''We apprehend that this is a move to use the report for furthering the vote bank politics'', he said.

It was an irony that the Muslims students are not entitled for reservation benefits in the institutions run by their own community because the law passed by the UPA government had exempted these institutions from providing reservation benefits to them, the BJP leader said.

Mr Jaitley and BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in separate statements that after being in power at the Centre and in the various states for five decades, the Congress did nothing to empower the Muslims with education and employment.

''The stress was more on politics and less on Muslim welfare,'' the two leaders said.

Mr Naqvi said everyone had ''understood'' the timing of the release of Justice Sachar Committee report. This was done keeping in mind the ensuing assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttaranchal.

This divide and rule policy will not help the Muslim cause, he added.

The status of Muslims under five decades of Congress regimes was zero, he remarked.

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