•  4% Muslim quota in jobs and education on SC’s stay completes 12 years
• Congress will launch a special drive to connect with 22 lakh beneficiaries of 4% Muslim quota: Shabbir

Hyderabad, March 25, 2022: Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Friday demanded Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to implement 12% reservation for both Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in the ongoing recruitment drive to fill nearly 80,039 vacancies. He said that the Chief Minister must implement the quota and fight a legal battle later if it gets stopped by the court of law.

He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Friday on the occasion of completion of 12 years of Supreme Court permitting the continuance of 4% Muslim quota in education and jobs in undivided Andhra Pradesh while referring the matter to the Constitution Bench for final hearing.

“March 25 is an important date in the history and struggle for Muslim reservation. It was on this day in 2010 when the Supreme Court permitted the continuance of 4% reservation in jobs and education for Muslims under the BC-E category which was struck down by the High Court. Originally, Congress President Sonia Gandhi promised 5% Muslim reservation in the 2004 Election Manifesto. The promise was implemented in just 58 days after coming to power by the Congress Govt headed by Dr. Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy. The quota was later reduced to 4% on the orders of the High Court. As the then minister, I played my role in getting clearance from over 17 Departments to implement a 5% Muslim quota. We fought a long legal battle to protect the Muslim reservation. It was struck down by the Andhra Pradesh High Court twice on technical or other grounds. The matter went to the Supreme Court and the Hon’ble Court permitted the continuance of 4% Muslim reservation subject to final judgment by the Constitution Bench,” he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the case was yet to come up for hearing as the Constitution Benches, constituted thrice, could not take up the matter due to technical reasons. “Since TRS Govt was showing lack of seriousness in fighting the case, I got impleaded in the case and senior Supreme Court Lawyer Salman Khursheed is representing the case in the Supreme Court. We will do whatever it takes to defend the ongoing 4% Muslim quota,” he said.

The Congress leader accused CM KCR of cheating the Muslims on the promise of 12% reservation. “KCR had promised to implement 12% quota within four months after coming to power. Even after seven-and-a-half years, it remained unimplemented. The promised 12% quota would have improved the growth of Muslims threefold. Today, we are getting about 250 MBBS seats under 4% reservation. We would have got over 750 Seats under the 12% quota. Similarly, we lost thousands of other seats in educational institutions,” he said adding that nearly 1,073 poor Muslims were getting admissions in MBBS in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under 4% quota and other minority colleges. On average, nearly 16,000 poor Muslims became doctors in the last 17 years due to the 4% reservation given by the previous Congress Govt. Therefore, Telugu States apparently produced the highest number of Muslim doctors compared to any other State in India,” he said.

He said that the number of beneficiaries could have increased threefold in Telangana if KCR had fulfilled his promise. “TRS Govt has announced to fill 80,039 vacancies in various departments. Under the BC-E category, Muslims will get 3,201 jobs. The community would have got 9,604 jobs under the 12% quota. Therefore, due to delay in implementation of promised 12% quota, poor jobless Muslims lost 6,403 job opportunities,” he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the 4% BC-E reservation provided by the previous Congress Govt ensured educational, economic and political empowerment of Muslims. “Lakhs of poor Muslims, who were categorised as BC-E, got admissions in MBBS, Engineering, MBA, MCA and other professional courses across undivided Andhra Pradesh. This had a huge impact on changing the lives of poor Muslims. Many students who got jobs under Group-I have become SPs and District Collectors. It revolutionised the lives of thousands of extremely poor Muslims. We also provided political reservations. For example, as many as 43 Muslim corporators were elected in the last GHMC elections. If there was no BC-E reservation given by Congress, today we would have had only 13 Muslims in a body of 150 corporators. A total of 30 Muslims got elected from the seats reserved for Backward Classes. Interestingly, he said Congress did not win from any of those seats While MIM won from 27 BC reserved seats and three went to the TRS,” he said.

The Congress leader said if KCR was serious in implementing a 12% quota for Muslims and STs, he should simply do it by issuing an order. “Since KCR is not serious, he is not doing anything to fulfill his promise. TRS Govt did nothing after passing a Bill in the State Legislature. No details were sent to the Central Govt to get final approval. If he is still serious, then the State Govt must issue an order to implement the same and then get prepared to defend the decision in the court,” he said.

Shabbir Ali described the Muslim leaders in TRS as spineless. He said the Muslim TRS leaders had no courage to question the Chief Minister for not making appointments for Haj Committee, Urdu Academy, or other bodies. He said no Muslim member has been appointed for the Telangana State Public Service Commission although it was legally mandatory. “Muslim leaders in TRS are cowards and their politics is confined to tying up ‘Imam-e-Zamin’ to KCR and KTR,” he said.

He announced that the Congress party was launching a mass contact programme to get in touch with nearly 22 lakh beneficiaries of 4% Muslim reservation in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh State. “Nearly 22 Lakh Muslim students, including 13-14 Lakh poor Muslims in Telangana who benefitted from 4% reservation policy will be approached. Group meetings will be held with professionals/students like Doctors, Engineers, MBAs, Lawyers and others who benefitted from the 4% quota policy. Our target is to meet each and every family and individual who benefitted from the Congress policy and seek their support in defeating communal TRS and BJP in the next elections,” he said.

Congress senior leaders including Sk Afzaluddin, Sameer Waliullah, Wajid Hussain, Mateen Shareef and Osman Khan were also present at the press conference.