Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday found support, as claimed by himself in the Legislative Council, from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the State Government’s plans to increase the reservation for Minorities on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and to Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population.
During the debate on the Bill to increase the reservation to Minorities from 4% to 12% and to Scheduled Tribes from about 7% to 10% in the Legislative Council, the Chief Minister repeatedly quoted the Prime Minister’s comments made at the BJP’s national executive meeting being held at Bhubaneshwar also on Sunday as the online media started putting out the reports on their websites.
Quoting Modi
The Chief Minister’s act of quoting the Prime Minister started with Minister for Urban Development, IT and Industries K.T. Rama Rao, passing on the information about Mr. Modi’s comments as they started flashing on the news websites while he was making the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the BJP to reach out to poor Muslims, who have not benefited much in all these years. Making an intervention during the BJP national executive meeting, he said even Muslim communities have backwards, who are the most marginalised, and it was a duty of the BJP to take the fruits of development to them,” Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said quoting the Prime Minister.
“It may be purely coincidental, but the Telangana Legislature taking up the Bill to increase quota for Minorities and Scheduled Tribes and the Prime Minister talking about reaching out the poor Muslims have taken place on the same day and around the same time. It’s a good omen for our efforts to end discrimination of those communities,” the Chief Minister said.
Welcomed
Further, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao stated that Mr. Modi’s suggestion was instantly welcomed by chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raghubar Das at the BJP meet. “The information did not reach our BJP friends in the Assembly here and they got suspended from the House by creating a scene,” the Chief Minister said and alleged that instead of speaking in the House they went outside and tried to damage and burn RTC buses.
