Akbaruddin Owaisi, MIM floor leader, has spoken of non-implementation of many policy decisions taken by the government for the welfare of minorities due to what he called “judicial activism and interference”.
Participating in the resumed debate on the demands pertaining to welfare departments in the Assembly on Monday, Mr Owaisi contended that minorities, especially Muslims, invariably suffered under various judgments of courts. The latest were the quashing of the government's orders providing for four per cent reservation to Muslims and subsidy to Christians to undertake pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Even as Deputy Speaker N. Manohar repeatedly advised him to exercise restraint while making remarks on judiciary, Mr Owaisi continued the criticism, saying that what was presently witnessed in the country was “hyper judicial activism”, undermining the decisions taken by the elected government. He brushed aside Mr. Manohar's advice and said “Sir, let me speak out at least here, using my Constitutional right and make suggestions to the judiciary”. Mr. Owaisi said the public interest petitions were normally filed by members of the Sangh Pariwar whenever the government took policy decisions favouring minorities. At the same time, he said the government's failure in the Courts to stand by its policy decisions, was also due to “failure” of the legal experts to defend the decisions properly.
He regretted that the Rosaiah's government allocated only 7.4 per cent of the funds of the budget for the welfare of SCs, STs, backward classes, minorities, the differently abled and others, amounting to Rs. 8,400 crore, even though they constituted a major chunk of the population. The projections made in the budget were such that many schemes of the minorities were simply discontinued. No allocations were made to Wakf Board, Urdu Academy and for repairs of mosques and churches.
