Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday demanded a 10 per cent quota for Muslims in government jobs and a mechanism to ensure that funds allocated for the welfare of the minorities were fully utilised.
“If the country is to become a super power, the socio-economic and political condition of the minorities needs to be improved,” he told a rally organised by the party here.
The minorities would have to be brought into the mainstream to strengthen the country, Mr. Paswan said. His party was playing the role of a catalyst to make the policymakers incorporate changes needed to help the Muslims, who share the “fate of the Dalits in the development matrix.”
He said the rally was meant to give a message to the Muslims that the LJP was “solidly” behind them and would fight to improve their lot.
Referring to the ban on the SIMI, Mr. Paswan said: “Fanatic organisations” such as the RSS and the Bajrang Dal should also be banned.
The migrants from the erstwhile East Pakistan who settled in Bihar before Bangladesh was created should be granted citizenship, he said.
