Mixed reactions on Allahabad High Court judgement on Muslims

New Delhi, Apr 5 (UNI) The Allahabad High Court judgement today that Muslims were a non-minority community in Uttar Pradesh, received a mixed reaction with the BJP and VHP welcoming it while Union Ministers Kapil Sibal, Ram Vilas Paswan and the Samajwadi Party, condemned it.

BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the order of the bench was an 'indictment' of the entire spectrum of UPA parties which vied with one another with their appeasement policies for political gains undermining the cardinal principle that every citizen was equal.

''They are dividing the society vertically for selfish gains undermining the Constitution'', he said.

Welcoming the ruling, Gujarat VHP General Secretary Jaydeep Patel demanded that any special privileges given to Muslims under minority community status be withdrawn at once.

He said that granting of such minority status to any community was an action to divide the citizens on the lines of religion.

Besides this, such status also becomes a vote-bank tool for the political parties, Mr Patel said.

However, Samajwadi Party, All India Muslims Personal Law Board and Muslims bodies said the ruling went against the Constitution which lists the comunity as a minority.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Minorities said it would first like to read the whole judgement in detail before commenting.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Shahid Siddiqui told UNI that party government in the state will give all help to the petitioners to appeal for a review of the High Court ruling.

''The ruling has come a great surprise to all. The words of the Constitution and various Supreme Court rulings leave no one in any doubt that Muslims are a minority,'' he added.

Senior Congress leader and Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal held that the judgement was contrary to the one given by the Supreme Court a few years ago and said the UP Chief Minister must take immediate steps to get this error rectified by the apex court.

''There is no doubt about the position taken by the Supreme Court on the issue and the matter is finally decided'', Mr Sibal told UNI adding that there was no scope for further interpretation.

Mr Paswan said the controversial judgement has been given by a single judge Bench and the government should appeal against it before a bigger Bench of the High Court.

''In UP Muslims constitue about 21 to 23 per cent of the population, hence they were in minority in the state,'' he said.

He wondered on what grounds the High Court has termed Muslims as a non-minority community in UP.

Mr Paswan said, ''under the Constitution minorities are defined both at the national and state level separately. At the national level Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are termned as minority while at the state level a particular community is termed as minority or non-minority depending on their population. For example in Kashmir Muslim forms a majority community in North East Christians are a majority and in Punjab Sikhs are in majority.'' UNI TEAM SK MIR VP0010