Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy today accused Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar of uttering lies that reservations to Muslims in Telangana are denying backward classes their quota.
The Chief Minister asked the central minister to respond who included backward sections as Muslims in the list of backward classes in the states ruled by the BJP.
“Is it not a fact that about 29 Muslim castes are enjoying BC reservations in Gujarat,” asked Revanth Reddy.
The Chief Minister said that Muslims are provided BC reservations in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar. “I am ready to send fact-finding committees to those states,” Revanth Reddy said while addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad to campaign for Congress candidate in the Legislative Council election from Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates’ constituency.
Revanth Reddy said Bandi Sanjay was trying to cheat BCs by uttering lies.
He alleged that BJP has no intention of enhancing reservations for BCs and hence its leaders were raking such issues. He vowed to expose the saffron party in the special session of the Assembly scheduled next month on the issue of BC reservation and dared BJP for a debate.
The Chief Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bandi Sanjay claim they are from BC communities. “Why didn’t the BJP do the national census in 2021 and include caste census in it,” he asked.
Revanth Reddy said the BC caste census was not done in the last 100 years but his government did it in a month and declared the official data.
He accused the BJP leaders of conspiring to create hurdles in caste census and in reaching the benefits to the deserved.
Bandi Sanjay recently warned the Congress government in the state that if Muslims are included in the list of BCs, the entire Hindu society will revolt.
Sanjay, who is a Member of Parliament of Karimnagar constituency, declared that Muslim as part of BCs will be unacceptable. The BJP leader, who is known for making controversial statements, targeted Congress for implementing reservation for Muslims. He believes that including Muslims in the list of BCs deprive BCs of their rightful reservation.
His statement came after the Congress government announced that it would pass a bill in the Assembly for 42% reservations to the BCs and send the same to the Centre for its approval in the Parliament.
As the overall reservation can’t cross the limit of 50%, the state can’t implement enhanced BC reservation on its own without a Constitutional amendment. The Congress government wants to put the ball in Centre’s court.
Backward sections among Muslims currently enjoy four percent reservation in Telangana in education and employment. They are categorised as BC-E.
