New Delhi: The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (Oct 8, 2004) accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of creating "confusion" over the issue of reservation for weaker sections in private sector and said it favoured "affirmative" action in this direction.

The main Opposition party also advocated a national debate for evolving a consensus on the matter.

"In our 'Vision Document', we have made our policy very clear that there should be a national debate on how to incentivise the private sector to persuade it to give larger opportunity to weaker sections of the society," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told a press conference in New Delhi.

Alleging that the Government was not clear on the matter, he charged the Prime Minister with creating "confusion by making two sets of contradictory statements on the same day at same place (in Maharashtra)."

He said his party would favour "affirmative" action on the matter.

The party is of the opinion that tax incentives should be given to the private enterprises for giving reservations.

Asked about the Election Commission's critical remarks against the Government, Jaitley said it was the "rare" occasion that the Central Government had been censured for "clear violation of Model Code of Conduct".

On the continued recovery of explosives in various parts of the country, the BJP leader said the Government needed to take the issue of internal security seriously and investigate whether any threat was being posed to the nation.