Congress Slams BJP Leader's Remarks On Muslims

Leader Of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir lambasted Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for his "unconstitutional" and "anti-secular" remarks about Muslims, and called it a crude attempt to divert the public's attention from the all-round failures of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and in 13 states.

Shabbir Ali stated, "The claims of the union minister that Muslims didn't vote for the BJP but the party still gave them proper sanctity exposed the hypocrisy of the BJP. It is not the BJP but the Constitution that gave Muslims special privileges in view of their social and economic backwardness."

"India is a democratic country where the Constitution is supreme, and it is the responsibility of the government to enforce the rights of Muslims," he said.

He added that the NDA government was deliberately playing up issues impacting Muslims including triple talaq, quota, beef, gau puja and so on periodically to divert the public attention from its failures.

"Though every Muslim is an Indian at heart and respects the Indian flag and the nation, Muslims' patriotism is suspected and they are treated as second rate citizens," he lamented. "The Union law minister should accept the ground reality that Muslims are looked down upon in the country."

He further alleged that the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were targeting madrassas and Muslim schools.

Referring to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the Muslim reservation bill passed in the Assembly, Shabbir Ali said that while the legislation was welcome, the bill was guaranteed to fail judicial scrutiny, and so KCR had deceived the Muslims once again.