Muslims Quota move not realistic

Union ministers argue that 12% reservations to Muslims won’t happen in the near future as KCR is not following the set procedure to realise the same

​New Delhi: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's resolve to provide 12 per cent reservations to the Muslims may not be realised in the near future as it has to go through 'several processes and get approval from several agencies’.

Union Minister for Social Justice Tawar Chand Gehlot clarified here on Saturday that the Centre had not received any proposal from the Telangana government in this regard. Speaking to the Telugu media at the National Media Centre here on Saturday, Gehlot said no such move to give 12 per cent quota to the Muslims had been brought to his notice.

“If any state government sought to do so, it should send the proposal to the Centre first. The Centre would then send it across to the Registrar General of India for his remarks. After securing his remarks on it, the proposal would be sent to the SC/ST Commissions concerned and only after its recommendation in its favour the Centre would take up the bill.

This is the 'set procedure' and there is no way that could be circumvented,” the Union minister said. Categorically ascertaining that the Registrar General of India was the only right authority to decide on such reservations as it had all info on various castes and status of the same, therefore, he said, the Centre had no say in it and without its recommendations and the clearance of the SC/ST Commissions, there was little that the Centre could do in the absence of the same, he explained.

He further said: "This is the only way one could include any section of the society in the quota. There is no other. No state government could do so on its own.”

At this juncture, Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athwale intervened to add: “Mandal Commission had already included 80 per cent of the various Muslim groups in the BC category” to buttress further his senior colleague’s argument.

It may be recalled that KCR had been reiterating his intention to provide reservations to the Muslims at any cost in the face of Opposition from the state BJP unit. He further stated that he would approach the Centre to seek clearance for the same on the lines of seven states where the percentage of reservation exceeded the benchmark set by the Supreme Court.

KCR's decision to provide 12 per cent reservations to the Muslims could not have come at more inopportune time politically. The BJP is all set to take on the ruling party in Telangana as it feels the time is ripe to attack the government over its failures. BJP's game plan in the South places TRS as a top target and is planning to corner the ruling party over “corruption and inaction".

It had already announced its plans to take the Muslim reservations issue to the masses and had warned the local government of a mass agitation. The BJP leadership is of the opinion that the Chief Minister is fully aware of the constitutional position and that there was no way he could provide the reservations to the Muslims.

“It is only a political game to appease the Muslims. He is fooling them. That is all. There is no basis for religion-based reservations, we won't allow it," top BJP sources say.