Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has raised doubts about the statistics relating to Muslim population in Telangana’s caste survey and demanded the Congress government to give a clarification.
AIMIM floor leader in Telangana Assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi highlighted the variation in the statistics of the caste survey report and those of comprehensive household survey conducted in 2014.
He said if the findings of the caste survey are compared with the 2014 survey, Aadhaar cards data and latest voter list, there are huge discrepancies.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday made a statement during the special session of the Assembly on Tuesday, highlighting the key findings of Socio-Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste Survey conducted recently.
Akbaruddin Owaisi wanted to know why the government has not tabled the report. To this the Chief Minister said they have no hidden agenda and that the survey was conducted with transparency.
The caste survey report revealed that the BCs account for 56.33 percent of the state’s population, of whom 10.08 percent are BC Muslims.
According to the report, 17.43 percent of the population are Scheduled Castes (SCs), 10.45 percent Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 12.56 percent Muslims, of which 2.48% are Other Caste (OC) Muslims. The OCs make up 13.31 percent of the total population.
The report shows that Muslims constitute 12.56 percent of Telangana’s population and of them 10.08 percent come under Backward Classes (BCs).
In absolute numbers, the population of BCs in the state is 1,99,85,767, including 35,76,588 BC Muslims. The total Muslim population in the state is 44,57,012.
As per the 2014 survey, the Muslim population was 13 percent including 10 percent BCs.
Akbaruddin Owaisi alleged that like the previous governments, the present Congress government has no intention of delivering justice to BCs. He said the government was only engaged in lip service on welfare of BCs.
The AIMIM leader said his party would work with Muslims, Dalits and BCs to end the injustice.
He slammed the BJP for opposing reservation to backward sections among Muslims. He said the reservation given to BCs, SCs, STs and backward sections among Muslims should be viewed from the angle of religious bias but should be seen from the perspective of development and justice.
“The term Muslim reservation is wrong. The correct term is reservation for Muslim backward castes,” he said.
Akbaruddin Owaisi also wanted to know why the government has not fulfilled its promise to enhance the BC reservation to 42 percent. He recalled that Congress had promised during elections that the overall reservation for SCs, STs and BCs will be enhanced from 50 percent to 72 percent.
Responding to Akbaruddin Owaisi’s speech, Chief Minister clarified that the government was not hiding any information. He said the entire report except the personal data of citizens would be made available.
He denied that injustice was done to any section in the survey. He claimed that the government is committed to ensure social justice.
Interestingly, main opposition BRS and BJP also targeted the Congress government for manipulating the statistics related to BCs. They wanted to know how the total BC population came down to 56.33 percent from 61 percent in 2014.
