Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad triggered a controversy after he favoured "poora" (complete) reservation for Muslims, inviting criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP and its former ally JD(U).
Speaking to the media in Patna, Lalu Yadav alleged that the ruling BJP wanted to do away with reservations by scrapping the Constitution and suggested that Muslims should get "complete" reservation. "Reservation toh milna chahiye Musalmano ko, poora... They (BJP) want to finish off the Constitution and democracy of the country," the RJD supremo said.
Addressing a rally on Tuesday, PM Modi said "dangerous conspiracy of Congress and INDI Alliance was exposed" with Lalu Yadav's statement. The BJP and Congress have been at loggerheads over poll promises, with PM Modi claiming that the Grand Old Party will "redistribute" country's resources among those with more children - referring to Muslims - and the latter slamming the Prime Minister for making "divisive" remarks.
The BJP also charged on Tuesday that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's remarks on Muslim quota have made it clear that if voted to power, the INDIA bloc will provide reservation to the minority community by making changes in the Constitution's fundamental structure.
"Lalu Prasad Yadav said that full reservation should be provided to Muslims. This word, 'pura ka pura' (full), used by him in his statement, is very serious. This makes it clear that they (INDIA bloc) want to provide reservation to Muslims from the share of SCs, STs and OBCs," BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said.
Trivedi claimed that the suspicion being raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP about the INDIA bloc's plan to change the Constitution to give reservations to Muslims from the share of the SCs, STs and OBCs is turning out to be true from Prasad's statement.
"This also makes one more thing clear that for the RJD, Muslims have become primary and Yadavs secondary," Trivedi added.
The BJP spokesperson said it has been clearly mentioned in the Constitution that reservation can not be provided based on religion.
"They want to change the fundamental structure of the Constitution to provide reservation to Muslims," he said, adding several other leaders of the INDIA bloc, including the Congress' Rahul Gandhi have been talking about providing reservation to Muslims if voted to power.
