Minority appeasement in Telangana turns ugly as Congress releases a ‘set of promises’ catering to the Muslim community

In the poll bound Telangana, Congress is set to release its manifesto aimed at appeasing the minority community. This manifesto comes after Congress released their ‘Christian Manifesto’ loaded with all kinds of sops and freebies.

In Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Congress seems to be in tussle of ‘Who appeases minority the most’. At first the TRS came out with a list of promises to appease the minority community, wherein they had promised to have a Muslim IT corridor to be built, providing 12% reservation exclusively for people of Muslim community in the state and setting up of a Muslim Bhavan which will act as research center and meeting place for the people of the minority community and said that Bhavan will be created in Muslim dominated areas.

Congress had then vehemently ridiculed this by calling it sheer appeasement and termed TRS as an ‘epitome of appeasement’.

Contradictory to their stance the Congress party is planning to come up with a manifesto which has varied schemes exclusively for the people of the Muslim community. Times Now got access to this manifesto which promises 7 schemes : 

1. Hospitals exclusively for Muslims will be established, this will be established towards the old city side which is a Muslim dominated area.

2. Action against private firms denying jobs on the basis of religion.

3. Urdu district selection panels for recruitment of Muslim teachers.

4. Special opportunities in government contract for Muslim youth.

5. Rs. 20 lakh as financial assistance for poor Muslim students.

6. Special residential schools to be set up for Muslim students.

7. Free electricity supply to mosque and churches in Telangana.

Instead of introspecting and altering its strategy, the Grand Old party is still indulging in appeasement politics. In the reckless pursuit of minority appeasement, the Congress is digging its grave even deeper.

Earlier, the Congress party come up with a Christian manifesto; the manifesto raised the need for protection of Christian bishops, pastors & evangelists. It further favored salaries to be paid to Pastors. The ideas of Christian Bhavan in state and Christian community halls in districts were also included. Christian Manifesto further talked about giving lands to Churches, graveyards & seats in Parliament for Christians. The BJP government recently abolished the Haj Subsidy, but here the Congress in its manifesto mentioned the allocation of subsidy for Christian pilgrimage.

Ironically, this has come at a time when Congress president Rahul Gandhi is campaigning in Rajasthan. While offering prayers at Pushkar Sarovar he claimed to be of ‘Kaul Dattatreya’ ‘gotra’ (lineage). Prior to this, a year ago in November, he had registered himself as Non-Hindu while offering prayers at Somnath Temple in Gujarat.

On one side Rahul is trying hard to prove himself as ‘januedhari’ Brahmin in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh whereas in Telangana he is resorting to Muslim and Christian appeasement tactics.
The time will only tell how effective these ‘Christian only’ and ‘Muslim Only’ manifestos turn out to be for Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party in Telangana where polling is scheduled for 7^th December.