Congress Slams Amit Shah Remarks On Muslim Reservation

Former minister and senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir today strongly condemned union Home Minister Amit Shah for calling the 4% Muslim reservation being implemented in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, unconstitutional.

Addressing media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, Shabbir Ali, along with Hyderabad DCC president Sameer Waliullah, said that it was highly unfortunate that Shah, holding the portfolio of India's home minister, didn't understand the difference between what was constitutional and what was unconstitutional.

Shabbir Ali emphasized that the 4% Muslim reservation was not based on religion, but covered 14 economically and socially backward castes among the Muslims as identified by a backward classes commission.

The 4% reservation was provided without cutting any other community's quota, with the Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Commission recommending the creation of a separate category "E" among the BCs for it, and a separate law was passed by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly to implement it, he said.

He added that the 4% quota was being enjoyed by the poorest of poor among the Muslims. Muslim groups including Syeds, Moghals, Pathans, Iranis, Bohras and others were excluded from the beneficiaries, and only the socially and economically weak groups including barbers, butchers, stone-crushers, and washermen among others were included in the BC-E group, he said.

Shabbir Ali accused Amit Shah and the BJP of being unaware of the history of reservation for Muslims, and attempting to mislead the public. He accused the BJP of being anti-poor and not wanting poor Muslims to progress. He however said that neither Amit Shah nor Bandi Sanjay could stop the 4% Muslim reservation, and that the Congress would continue to protect it.

He also pointed out that the 4% Muslim reservation was in force in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since March 2010 based on a stay granted by the Supreme Court, and therefore calling it unconstitutional amounted to contempt of the Supreme Court and utter disrespect for the Constitution.

The Congress leader urged that instead of deceiving the SCs, STs and OBCs with false promises of increasing their quota by taking away the 4% reservation from Muslims, the BJP government should pass legislation providing reservations to communities in proportion to their population.

He pointed out that the BJP government had not established a separate ministry for the welfare of BCs in the past nine years. "People are well aware that BJP leaders, particularly Amit Shah, are experts in jumlay baazi and making hollow promises, and they are employing this tactic in Telangana to mislead the public," he said.