Reservations alone would bring a positive change and development in the Muslim community, the Deputy CLP leader in the Telangana Council said.
Deputy CLP leader in the Telangana Legislative Council Shabbir Ali has urged the Central Government to pursue the 4.5% minorities sub-quota case in the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office on Sunday, Shabbir Ali informed that he was in receipt of a letter from Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptullah wherein she expressed happiness over the successful implementation of reservations for Muslim reservation in Andhra Pradesh since 2004.
In her reply to a letter written by Shabbir Ali on July 13, Najma Heptullah said, "I am happy to learn that because of successful implementation of Muslim reservation policy in Andhra Pradesh since 2004, 2,000 poor Muslim students have become doctors and 9,023 engineering seats are available every year for Muslims in the engineering colleges of Andhra Pradesh."
Shabbir Ali said that Najma Heptullah had also assured him that the Centre would take a view on the Muslim reservation policy after the judgement of the Supreme Court of India.
Welcoming the change in her stand on the Muslim reservation policy, he urged the Union Minister to direct the Attorney General of India to follow up the case of the 4.5% sub-quota for minorities announced by the Centre in 2013, in the Supreme Court.
"The early disposal of case might help the students of the minority communities in enjoying the reservation benefit from the same academic year," he said.
"The reservation policy has helped in the educational, social, economic and political empowerment of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes in our country. Similarly, the reservations in jobs and educational institutions will help lakhs of economically and socially backward sections of the Muslim community," said Shabbir Ali.
Shabbir Ali said that religion should not be the basis of reservation. "In Andhra Pradesh, too, 4% reservation was given only to 14 sections of poor and socially backward Muslims, who were identified by an independent Backward Classes Commission. While pursuing the ongoing cases in the Supreme Court, I request you to kindly take steps to extend the reservation benefit to the economically and socially backwards classes of Muslims across the country. This is a very difficult task. But where there is a will, there is a way," he said in his reply sent to the Union Minister.
The Deputy CLP leader said that the long-term benefits of the policies of the Congress were being endorsed by one and all, including its political opponents. He claimed that the statistics related to the success of reservations for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh had convinced Najma Heptullah, who had initially opposed reservation for Muslims, of the benefits of this revolutionary policy.
He said that now the Central Government too needed to accept the reality that reservations alone would bring a positive change and development to the Muslim community.
Shabbir Ali said that a 4.5% minorities sub-quota implemented by the Centre, and separate reservations implemented by the States, would ensure the educational, social and economical development of the Muslim community across the country. (INN)