Maulana Naidu hits out at Modi

Guntur: In an attempt to woo Muslims after he parted ways with the NDA, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday promised that he would take up the responsibility of providing 4 per cent reservations for them.

The Chief Minister said that he was aware of the fact that the reservation issue was pending in the Supreme Court but promised to initiate appropriate legal action.

Addressing a convention of Muslims christened “Nara Hamara-TDP Hamara” at B R Stadium here, Chandrababu Naidu announced several sops for Muslims, including a cabinet berth, allocation of Rs 40 crore for Noor Basha Federation and setting up of Autonagars exclusively for Muslims where they could set up workshops.

The Telugu Desam Party workers mobilised Muslim minorities from not only Guntur but also from neighbouring districts as it was the first-ever major convention of the Muslims after Naidu took over as the Chief Minister in 2014.

In fact, after Naidu struck an alliance with BJP, the Muslim constituency has been neglected. Now that he broke away from the BJP and is attacking it regularly, he apparently is trying to move closer to the Muslim minorities.

He reminded them that the government was spending Rs 453 crore for education of Muslims and that the TDP government was according top priority to Muslims since beginning.

He said that he had given due importance to Muslim leader from Guntur, the late Lal Jan Basha, and has made his brother Ziauddin chairman of Minorities’ Commission. Hidayat from Guntur was appointed as AP Muslims Finance Corporation chairman. The government will take up responsibility of performing marriages to Muslim girls by providing a financial assistance of Rs.50,000. 

Training his guns at the BJP, the Chief Minister urged the Muslims not to support the YSRC as it would mean voting for the BJP. This is because YSRC president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s poodle, he said and recalled how he had influenced the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in making APJ Abdul Kalam as President of India.

“Dr Kalam has mentioned this in his book too. When riots broke out in Gujarat in 2002, I had demanded dismissal of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” he said. Naidu said that TDP had sailed with the BJP for four years hoping that it would help the state. He repeatedly asked the Prime Minister to keep the promises made at the time of the division of the state.

“But the BJP had taken the people of the state for a ride. Now I have decided to take the state forward with my own effort regardless whether the Centre would help or not. TDP had moved no-confidence motion against the BJP government for not according Special Category Status to AP,” he said and pointed out that if Amaravati Bonds were oversubscribed, it only reflected the trust the investors reposed in him. He lashed out at the BJP for making corruption allegations against him on this count too.