BJP is communalising minority allocation : Congress

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The Congress Party today came down heavily on the BJP for its opposition to the inclusion of the Prime Minister's 15-point Programme for welfare of minorities in the Eleventh Plan document, and asserted that the government was committed to the programme.

''It is the commitment of the government and the programme will be implemented. The BJP will not be successful by raising such objections,'' AICC Spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told mediapersons.

On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's criticism of the Manmohan Singh government at the meeting of the National Development Council for resorting to ''communal budgeting,'' he said that ''we are not communalising the allocation for minorities. But the BJP is trying to communalise the issue.'' Accusing the Planning Commission of introducing an ''obnoxious element of communal budgeting'' in the Eleventh Plan document, Mr Modi said it was a sure recipe for social and political disharmony in the country, and appealed to the Government to withdraw the document from the NDC meeting.

''Is there any justification for making religion the basis for Plan document or for making it a parameter for defining poverty?'' Mr Modi asked earlier in the day, while addressing the high-profile meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

UNI