Salman Khurshid’s quota byte bites Congress

Even as the Congress party continues to mount a brave defence in favour of the union law and minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid for his electoral promise to reserve 9% of the OBC quota for the minorities, there is a realisation that this could hurt the party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh polls.

“Such a promise has an adverse impact on the OBCs as they perceive it as an encroachment from their share,” said a senior Congress MP.

There is a feeling that Khurshid perhaps over-stepped his brief as he was speaking in his wife’s constituency. “The tendency to go overboard during an election meeting is common among politicians, but then as a union minister he has a special responsibility, that too, because he is holding the minority affairs portfolio,” the MP added.

But the party is also confident that the Election Commission’s notice to Khurshid and his wife Louise on this matter would not have much of an impact. “The legal aspect can be dealt with adequately,” the MP observed.

Party spokesperson Manish Tiwari strongly rebutted the BJP’s contention that Khurshid’s suggestion could lead to “a second partition of the country”.

Those who have injected communal poison in the polity of the country, and who have a track record of continuously disrupting communal harmony have no business to advise us,” he said while adding, that it is unacceptable even to use expressions like “second partition”.