Chennai, Sept. 17: The “curse” of Mohammad Ali Jinnah refuses to leave the BJP. A mention of the Quaid-e-Azam crept into the political resolution adopted by the party today, the second day of the national executive.

However, the reference was indirect and the context was contemporary Congress politics, not the controversial Pakistan visit of BJP president L.K. Advani.

The resolution accused the UPA being “obsessed” with votebank politics and minorityism. It spoke of the Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to extend quotas to Muslims in education, employment and local government as well as the Centre’s to have 50 per cent reservation for Muslims in Aligarh Muslim University.

“These measures violate the criterion for reservations that were settled by the founding fathers of the Constitution. The Congress and its allies have revived religion-based quotas that nurtured Muslim separatism and led to the creation of Pakistan,” it said. BJP sources said a senior member had insisted on inserting Jinnah’s name in the sentence on Muslim separatism. But the amendment was not incorporated as the member had no backing.

Asked to confirm the report, spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said: “The discussions inside are not shared with the press. If we start telling the press about our internal discussions, the spirit of inner-party democracy will be crushed. Then we may as well throw open our meetings to the media.”

The resolution, which was jointly drafted by Arun Jaitley and Sushma, amplified on the politics of “fatwa”. It mentioned the “fatwa” served on tennis star Sania Mirza to dress according to “Islamic norms” as an example of how the present climate of “minority appeasement” had “emboldened reactionary clerics into issuing edicts which violate the dignity and human rights of Muslim women”.

Sushma said the BJP’s submissions on “fatwa” politics should not be linked to religion but to “gender justice and rights”.

The BJP demanded the Centre should take “stern” action against all “fatwas”, extra-judicial tribunals and religious courts and, pending a common civil code, the personal laws of all communities must correspond to prevailing ethical norms and uphold gender justice. But it was unclear on whether the government must intervene to have the personal laws amended or it should be incumbent on the communities to do this.

After going hammer and tongs on the UPA for “wilfully squandering” away the “rich inheritance” of the Vajpayee government, the resolution declared that the UPA was given “reasonable time to show its mettle” and it was time the BJP “vigorously” mobilised public opinion against it.

It claimed the BJP will play the role of a “robust nationalist opposition” within Parliament and outside but made it clear it will not be a solo endeavour but in concert with the NDA.

But Sushma avoided a direct answer on whether this meant putting Hindutva-related issues on the backburner again. “This question is relevant when we come to power.”

and a common minimum programme has to be drafted,” she said.

Asked how the BJP could be “robust” when Advani’s authority was getting undermined repeatedly, Sushma said: “This is not true, nobody raised the demand for his removal.”

To persistent queries on whether Advani would unveil a date-line --- December, perhaps --- for demitting office in his concluding remarks tomorrow, Sushma replied: “I have no knowledge about Advani stepping down in December or tomorrow.”