Asaduddin Owaisi, the president of AIMIM, has disputed remarks made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that reservations for Muslims would be eliminated if the BJP gains control of Telangana. He claims that quotas are granted to backward castes of Muslims in the state rather than on the basis of religion. In response to prior media claims, he said that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not encouraged party members to engage with ‘pasmanda’ (backward) Muslims. “The castes among Muslims are eligible for the reservation that is available in Telangana in the BC(E) category,” he told reporters here on Monday.
According to studies, including one by a sociology specialist and by the then-undivided Andhra Pradesh government’s OBC Commission, the quota is accessible to backward castes of Muslims, he said. In an attack on the BJP, he said that the group is opposed to the empowerment of the “pasmanda” Muslims. Owaisi questioned the Centre’s silence about the Telangana Assembly’s resolution in support of raising the scheduled tribes’ 6% reservation to 9% as well as the Act that would provide castes within Muslims a 12% quota. Overall, the BJP is using a systematic approach to prevent Muslim empowerment, he said.
He argued that Shah had misrepresented the reality of the Telangana reservation for Muslims. On Sunday, Shah stated reservations for Muslims will be eliminated if the BJP won power in Telangana while speaking at a public event called “Vijay Sankalp Sabha” close to this location. Later this year, elections are scheduled for the southern state. Owaisi also supported “breaking the barrier” of the 50% cap on reservations by the NDA administration at the Centre. In addition, he claimed that Shah and the BJP avoid discussing issues like the “death of those in police custody” (a reference to the murder of Atiq Ahmad in UP), houses being destroyed by bulldozers, the deaths of “Junaid and Naseer” (two men from Rajasthan) in Haryana, the nation’s unemployment rate, and terrorist attacks on Indian soldiers by Pakistani terrorists.
When questioned about the alleged statements made by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on the impending implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, he said that the nation has to manage price growth and solve unemployment. He said, “The nation does not require a uniform civil code.” Owaisi said that although the culture of Muslims will be stolen, the culture of the dominant society would be safeguarded. According to Article 29 of the Constitution, which protects minorities’ interests, “I have an absolute right,” he said.
In response to Yogi Adityanath’s reported claims that there are no riots occurring in the state, he said that data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that hundreds of riots had happened in the state a few years ago when the BJP was in power. When asked about today’s meeting between Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, and Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, as part of attempts to forge an opposition alliance before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he said there was still a long way to go. In his criticism of Nitish Kumar, he claimed that the latter had joined the BJP in the past but has since defected.