No regrets over Muslim quota remark: Khurshid

Law Minister Salman Khurshid, who has courted controversy by his statement on granting nine per cent quota for minorities, on Friday said he had no regrets as he had not done anything unlawful.

"No. Why should I regret? You regret when you do something unlawful," he told the media while emerging from a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal gas tragedy.

Khurshid made the promise of nine per cent sub-quota for Muslims within the existing 27 per cent Other Backward Class quota in Farrukhabad Assembly Constituency in Uttar Pradesh where his wife Louise is in the fray. He was slapped with a notice on Tuesday by the Election Commission which held that prima facie his promise on sub-quota for backward muslims within existing 27 per cent OBC quota was "serious violation" of the model code of conduct.

He replied to the notice on Thursday, defending his statement by citing the 2009 Congress poll manifesto in which the party had promised to provide for a sub-quota for minorities. "We have to file a reply. How can you not file a reply? Yes, I have filed the reply," the Minister said when asked about it.

 Queried whether he felt it was a mistake to make such a statement, he shot back, "If I say you that I committed a mistake, what will be my reply?"

When pointed out that Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi had complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about his earlier statement suggesting the Law Ministry's control over the Election Commission, Khurshid was dismissive, claiming, "No complaint has been made."