MALAPPURAM: In line with its opposition to the 10 per cent reservation for economic backward sections among the forward castes, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) will take part in the protests to be organised by the Samvarana Samudaya Munnani. The IUML move pits the party against its senior alliance partner Congress which has welcomed the government decision.
However, PK Kunhalikutty, national general secretary, IUML, made it clear that the party will not be spearheading the protest which will also include Ezhava, Vanika, Latin Catholic and the SC/ST sections.“The IUML will join them in the protest against the reservation. We will also strongly oppose the economic reservation. The position taken by the state and Central governments in the matter should be opposed,” Kunhalikutty said.
E T Mohammed Basheer, MP, who is the IUML national organising secretary, said the state government has sabotaged the reservation system in the country. “The state and Central governments have done injustice to backward communities by providing reservation for forward castes. The new reservation system will lead to injustice. The eligibility criteria for the economic reservation itself proves it. A person with 50 cents of land in a corporation area is eligible for the economic reservation. In corporation limits, a cent of land is worth around `25 lakh. Those people cannot be included among the economically weaker sections,” E T said.
He also said the government had tried to give communal colour to the protests against economic reservation. “It is not an issue affecting the Muslim community alone. It is a matter which affects the fundamentals of the reservation policy,” he added. According to the IUML leaders, the party differed with the Congress on the issue of reservation for forward castes.
Gross injustice, says E T
E T Mohammed Basheer, MP, who is the IUML national organising secretary, said the new reservation system will lead to injustice. The eligibility criteria for the economic reservation itself proves it. A person with 50 cents of land in a corporation area is eligible for the economic reservation. In corporation limits, a cent is worth around `25 lakh. Those people cannot be included among the economically weaker sections.