'Separate budget for Muslims to segregate society'

New Delhi, Dec 18: Taking strong exception to the UPA government treating Muslims as a synonym for minorities, the BJP today said attempt to provide separate budget for Muslims would sow the seeds of sectarianism.

BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told newspersons that UGC Chairman Bimal Tharot had submitted a proposal seeking Rs 5040 crore for Muslim education before the Planning Commission. He said the BJP was not for discrimination against anybody but the UPA government was bent upon treating Muslims as a synonym for minorities.

He said the BJP was in total agreement with the UN Resolution against discrimination of any individual on ethnic, cultural, linguistic basis. ''We are for equal rights for all and not for conferring any special rights on anybody because of his faith and belief in a religion, denying the majority their rights. We want universal education, justice and equality for all,'' he remarked.

The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan initiated during the NDA regime did not make any discrimination but it provided both incentives as well as punishment for those not willing to send their children to the schools, he said.

Mr Malhotra said there were Islamic countries which did not tolerate any other religions and even possession of any religious scripture would be treated as an offence and any attempt to change one's religion would end up receiving death penalty. The UN minorities reforms should dawn upon in such countries, he said.

However, in India, the government was seeking incovenience for the majority in order to woo the Muslim vote bank, he said.

Asked about Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's proposals for solving Jammu and Kashmir problem, Mr Malhotra said India should have rejected outright his proposals like joint monitoring and joint management. ''His suggestions are unacceptable and the country has lost hundreds of precious lives in the three wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971 and the Kargil conflict,'' he remarked.

UNI

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