Ahead of NDC meet, Rajnath tells party CMs to oppose ‘communal budgeting’

The BJP has said it would oppose any government plan to “reserve” 15 per cent funds for minorities. Party president Rajnath Singh has written to BJP chief ministers to oppose any such move for “communal budgeting” at the National Development Council (NDC) meeting on Wednesday. All BJP chief ministers, including Gujarat’s Narendra Modi, are expected to participate at the 54th NDC meeting. Singh has directed the chief ministers of party-ruled states to resist “any overt or covert” move by the Centre to “incorporate communal budgeting”, particularly in the 11th Five Year Plan to be considered at the meeting.

Any such move “would give a fillip to competitive communal demands for budgetary allocations and in the process the holistic approach to national development would become a casualty”, Singh has said.

Accusing the UPA Government of planning to incorporate communal budgeting through moves to reserve 15 per cent funds for minorities, the letter says it will “sow the seeds of discord, disharmony and disintegration”.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had stated at an NDC meeting last year that minorities, particularly Muslims, should have the “first claim” on resources. Dismissing the BJP’s claims, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, “I reject the idea that (it) is a communal allocation.” He added that improving the welfare of SC/STs, minorities and other groups was part of the Plan strategy to make development more inclusive.