PM Statement Shows KCR Fooling Muslims On Quota: Congress

Leader Of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council and senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir today said that Prime Minister Modi's election speech in Gujarat on Tuesday confirmed that there would not be any quota for any one above the current 50% cap fixed by the Supreme Court.

This exposed Chief Minister KCR, who was "misleading" the Muslims with false assurances, he said.

Shabbir Ali said that Modi had endorsed what Union Minister for Minorities and Parliamentary Affairs Mukathar Abbas Naqvi had said during his recent visit to the city. Naqvi had said that the Supreme Court judgments needed to be respected, and that the state governments could not increase the quota on their own and bring pressure on the Centre.

Shabbir Ali said that KCR and his government had only generated publicity for themselves as the saviours of the Muslim and ST communities by passing a legislation for giving 12% reservation to Muslims and 10% to STs (up from 4% and 6% respectively), all through aware that it would not actually withstand judicial scrutiny. The Telangana CM and his AP counterpart were only playing to the gallery for votes, he alleged.

He also recalled that the Congress government under the late YSR had also hiked the quota for Muslims to 5% but it was struck down by the A P High Court and also in the Rajasthan High Court.

"As a minister in YSR's government I took the lead to see that the quota was retained at 4% so that the courts would not object, and thousands of Muslim youth would benefit in jobs and higher studies," he added.