Muslims should get quota: Lalu

Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said he was in favour of extending reservation benefits to the Muslims but emphasised that it should be based on social backwardness and ‘not on the basis of religion’.

Notably, several Muslim sub-groups figure in the lists of OBCs in Bihar and several other states. However, their inclusion in Karnataka, which is currently under the Congress rule, has come under fire from the BJP, which was defeated in Assembly polls last year.

Lalu Prasad spoke to PTI-Video after his remarks on reservation benefits for the minority community earlier in the day kicked up a storm.

"Should not Muslims too get reservations (aarakshan to milna chahiye na Muslamanon ko," was Prasad's terse reply to journalists when they asked him about allegations by Modi and other BJP leaders that the RJD and its allies like the Congress wanted to extend quota benefits to the minority community, depriving OBCs, Dalits and tribals of their due.