On Sunday, the BJP President Amit Shah has launched a blistering attack on Telangana state government’s proposal to grant 12 per cent quota to Muslims. Amit Shah said his party will never allow religion based reservation as it is unconstitutional.
Amit Shah launched scathing attack at Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao over the issue of Muslim reservation during campaign rallies at Parkal and Nirmal ahead of the December 7 state assembly elections.
Amit Shah said, “I want to tell Chandrasekhar Rao, the Supreme Court has fixed 50 per cent ceiling (on total reservations). If you want to provide 12 per cent reservation, from whose quota are you going to carve it out: from Dalits, tribals or OBCs. Decide this first.” He further added, “BJP would stand firmly to protect the reservation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.”
Telangana CM has proposed 12% reservation for the minorities which isn't possible without taking away reservation quotas of SCs, STs or OBCs. BJP is against any reservation on the basis of religion & will not allow anyone else to make this happen: Shri @AmitShah #TelanganaWithBJP pic.twitter.com/WcezrWCUyS
— BJP (@BJP4India) November 25, 2018
He said that Rao promised reservation to the Muslim community “despite being aware” of the 50 per cent limit and forwarded the proposal (bill) to the Centre. Amit Shah said, “BJP would stand firmly to protect the reservation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.”
He assured the gathering that as long as the BJP government is at the centre, religion-based reservation would not be allowed. Amit Shah said, “You don’t worry. Even if KCR, Congress, TDP, communists, all of them come together, I guarantee that till the BJP government is at the Centre, religion-based reservation will not be given.”
When it comes to Muslim appeasement, KCR is perfect competitor to Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu. He promised to give 12% quota to Muslims in employment and education, he tried his level best to implement but failed to do so because Supreme Court has capped the total reservations at 50 per cent. The Telangana legislature has even passed a bill increasing reservations in jobs and education for the Muslim community to 12 per cent from the earlier four per cent. The bill is yet to get the clearance of the centre.
KCR targeted the Modi government at a campaign rally at Shadnagar for not clearing the bill granting 12% quota to Muslim community. He said, “We want to give reservations to Muslims. But Modi is against that. That is the reason I am advocating a non-Congress and non-BJP front government. You know that I fought for Telangana’s statehood. I will get you reservations the same way.”
KCR is clearly rattled with centre’s decision and today Amit Shah has again made it very clear that his government won’t allow religion based reservation.
Politicians like KCR have made reservations a political game. He is using reservation as a tool to appease Muslims to secure Muslim vote bank. His entire politics revolve around appeasing Muslims. Just to give example of his Muslim appeasement politics, for the ‘welfare of the Muslims’ his government allocated Rs. 1,250 crores in annual budget. As if it was not enough his government took many other steps exclusively for the welfare of Muslims. In his message, at the annual conference of All India Muslim Education Society (AIMES), he listed the ‘revolutionary steps’ taken by his government for Muslims. According to KCR, “One revolutionary step initiated by us is setting up of large number of Minority Residential Schools – 206 such high quality Residential schools are already a reality. More than 50,000 students are enrolled in these schools and on each student the cost spent is Rs. 65,000. This is in addition to the infrastructure cost of a minimum of Ac. 5.00 of land and Rs. 20 Crores to build each school. Fifty per cent of these schools are exclusively for girls. This will tremendously empower the Muslim women in a short time. Ultimately 1,35,000 students each year will get benefit with high quality education along with sports, nutrition, Clothing, etc., through these schools.” He further added, “Telangana Government reimburses the Tuition fee for Minority students on par with SC, ST and OBC students. Rs.200 crores is allocated and for this purpose. In addition, the state government pays Pre Metric Scholarships for Minority Students. Another innovative step is providing a grant of Rs. 20 lakhs in the form of Overseas Scholarship to each Minority student getting educated in Foreign Universities. Rs.40 crores allocated annually. This will transform lives of hundreds of meritorious students.”
KCR government of the state also bears the cost of training 100 selected candidates belonging from the so-called minority community in standard institutions for civil services exams and also for other competitive exams. To encourage entrepreneurship among minority youth, Telangana government launched T-PRIME scheme and allocated Rs. 25 crores in the budget.
A grant of Rs.75,116 is provided to each deserving Muslim girl under “Shaadi Mubarak Scheme” for marriage expenses. Around 70,000 girls got the benefit of this scheme. He also distributed new clothes to 4 lakh Muslim families during Ramzan.
In his message, he proudly claimed that the Telangana State stands first in promotion and development of Urdu language. “Assistance is given to Urdu writers, poets, journalists and small newspapers, value of prestigious Makhdoom Award is enhanced to Rs.2.25 lakhs. Similarly Moulana Abul kalam Azad Award worth Rs.2.25 Lakhs is also awarded to eminent personalities every year. To promote and encourage Urdu Education “Best Urdu Teachers and Best Urdu Students Awards are sanctioned every year. Infrastructure facilities are also provided to the Urdu Medium Schools. To further improve the conditions of Urdu Medium Schools the State Government is considering a proposal to transfer these Schools to the Minorities Welfare Department, so that these schools are managed in a better way. He also added, an Honorarium of Rs.1,500 per month is being released to 10,000 Imams and Mouzzins in the State.
All this is being done to appease Muslims and consolidate Muslim votes in his favor, while Hindus of the state continue to suffer due to negligence of the state government. Muslims don’t have any faith in the prevalent education system and mostly go to the Madarasas where their mind is intoxicated with religion, which is of no use when it comes to landing a job in the government or the private sector. They produce more and more children despite being poor, it increases the financial burden on the family and they fail to invest in providing proper education to their kids. Basically they end up doing everything that they shouldn’t be doing in the first place.
