Congress is 'B' team of the Muslim League: Narendra Modi

Nagpur, Nov 22 (UNI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said the BJP would oppose tooth and nail, any move by the UPA government to promote religion based reservation and added that the Congress's policy of minority appeasement could lead to another partition of the country.

Addressing a public meeting here to mark the conclusion of the anti-terrorist campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Modi said the Congress was repeating the demands that the Muslim League made before independence and divided India on religious lines.

Among the Muslim League's demands was reservation on the basis of religion, Mr Modi said, adding that even the members of the Constituent Assembly were against religion based reservation.

The chief minister criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's decision to scrap POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activists Act), and said there were celebrations in Pakistan and among terrorist organisations when the legislation was repealed. Unfortunately, the UPA government was proud of the decision, he lamented.

Mr Modi lashed out at the Centre for delaying a decision on the mercy petition of Mohammed Afzal, who has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in the Parliament attack case. The government had made a decision within 11 hours on the mercy petition of General A S Vaidya's killers, he pointed out.

Asserting that the only way of fighting terrorism was to adopt the policy of a bullet for a bullet, Mr Modi said terrorism and naxalism had broken the very backbone of the country's economy.

The country would be doomed if the government continued to treat terrorists with kid-gloves, he warned yesterday, adding that India must lead the global fight against terrorism and not rely on others to tackle the problem.

Alleging that the Congress President Sonia Gandhi remained a foreigner at heart because she had refrained from singing the 'Vande Mataram' when the entire country recited it recently, he said the Congress had made a shrewd move to please all sections of the society by making the recitation of the 'Vande Mataram' voluntary.

UNI AB WD MS DS1230