Undaunted by criticism over his comments on Muslim reservation in Farrukhabad on Thursday, senior Congress leader and Union minister Beni Prasad Verma claimed that his remarks at the election rally were aimed at giving a “morale booster” to his otherwise “demoralised” ministerial colleague Salman Khurshid, who has been censured recently by the EC.
While exclusively speaking to this newspaper after his remarks in Farrukhabad, Mr Verma said, “In my address I expressed concern about the plight of Muslims in UP who do not have jobs and almost none of them own land and industry. They mostly engage in manual labour and get peanuts. Therefore, I talked about giving priority to them in education, health and jobs and this priority can be ensured only through reservation.”
When pointedly asked why he chose to speak on the issue when his ministerial colleague was censured for promising to “hike the minorities sub-quota from with the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs”, Mr Verma said, “I was there in Mr Khurshid’s constituency and found him demoralised. Therefore, to boost his morale, I decided to assure him that I was with him on the issue.”
Similar to minorities’ sub-quota, the Batla House encounter has also been repeatedly taken up by Congress leaders during the campaign. When asked why his party colleagues raked up the issue after two years of its occurrence, Mr Verma said, “I have nothing to say about it as the topic exclusively belongs to AICC general secretary in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh.”
Claiming that the success of the Congress in UP in the 2009 general elections was “just a surprise”, he maintained: “For the first time in the last 22 years the party appears to be in the reckoning.” He claimed in the first phase (the area is considered to be his stronghold) the Congress has a decisive lead.