India Should be declared as Hindu Nation for Muslim Reservation: BJP

Protesting the UPA government's proposal of Muslim reservation within the 27 per cent OBC quota, Uttar Pradesh BJP today said it will hold statewide demonstrations against it on December 27, the day...

"The move to provide reservation to minorities is divisive and not in the interest of the country. BJP will protest the move across the country and in the state it will hold demonstration at all district headquarters on December 27 when the Bill would be tabled in Parliament," BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi told reporters here.

Claiming that providing reservation to Muslims is like declaring India as a Hindu nation, BJP leader Uma Bharti said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clarify whether he had declared India as a Hindu nation.

"Reservation on the basis of religion cannot be provided unless they (Centre) declare India as Hindu nation," she said during the joint press conference with Shahi.

"It was a move to divide the country," she said, adding that it was a ploy of the Congress ahead of the UP assembly elections to appease the Muslim community