Advisor to Telangana Government (SC, ST, BC & OBC) Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that there was no threat to the ongoing 4% Muslim quota in Telangana and rubbished the threats by Union Home Minister Amit Shah of scrapping the 4% Muslim reservation if BJP is voted to power.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Shabbir Ali said that the 4% Muslim reservation case is pending in the Supreme Court, and a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court will hear it. Therefore, until the Supreme Court gives its final verdict, neither Amit Shah nor any BJP leader could stop the 4% Muslim reservation in the Telugu States.
Shabbir Ali said that the previous Congress Government implemented a 4% Muslim reservation to ensure the empowerment of socially and economically backward groups among Muslims.
He made it clear that the 4% Muslim quota was not given based on religion but on socio-economic backwardness, and only 14 identified groups were getting the benefit due to their backwardness established by the BC Commission and not the entire community. Further, he said that the 4% Muslim quota was within the prescribed 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court as per the Indra Sawhney Judgment. Most importantly, the Muslim quota was given separately without reducing the reservation percentage of other communities, he said.
He said it has become a habit for Amit Shah to speak against 4% Muslim reservation on every visit to Telangana. Even Amit Shah knows that the BJP will never come to power in Telangana.
Therefore, he tries misleading the people with promises like scrapping the Muslim quota. “Unfortunately, Amit Shah is holding the portfolio of India’s Home Minister, and he doesn’t understand the difference between constitutional and unconstitutional,” he said.
