The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began its two-day national executive meeting here Monday favouring reserving 27 percent seats in higher education institutions for other backward castes (OBCs).Party leaders, under president Rajnath Singh, discussed the issue threadbare and tried to placate its sizeable chunk of OBC members in parliament by supporting the reservation issue in principle.
At the same time, in an attempt to nurse its traditional upper caste vote bank, other party leaders said they could not support quotas at the cost of knowledge or excellence.
"The BJP wants a blend of social empowerment and excellence in the country. We also support reservation for economically backward sections from upper castes and backward castes among minorities," said party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.
"Why is the government quiet over reservation in minority institutions?" Prasad asked, amid a volley of questions from reporters.
A senior BJP leader who was present at the meeting said: "The issue of reservation enveloped all other issues at the party meet." This was also the first national executive after Rajnath Singh took over as the BJP chief.
"This is an acid test for the new party chief and he seems to be trying to strike a balance between political pragmatism, ideology and party's commitment towards social empowerment of backwards and Dalits," the leader added.
Rajnath Singh, addressing the national executive in presence of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, talked about the party's stand on reservation at length.
Spelling out the party's stand, he said: "The social fabric of the society must not be damaged. Consensus building is must for such initiatives. The United Progressive Alliance government has failed on that score."
He expressed concern over incidents of indiscipline in the party. He said there is a need to review the party strategy in the light of its poor performance in the assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Pondicherry and West Bengal.
The BJP chief blamed the UPA government for growing threat to internal security and allowing proxy management of India's foreign policy by the Left parties.
On Tuesday, the BJP will discuss its electoral strategy for Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Manipur which go to the polls in February next year.
(IANS)
