HYDERABAD : If the YSRCP wins in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will continue reservations for Muslims, said AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday, adding that the people will teach a lesson to the TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena’s Pawan Kalyan for joining hands with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Addressing a rally at Goshamahal on Wednesday, Owaisi, while referring to PM Narendra Modi’s assertion on Tuesday that Muslims would not be given reservations as long as he was alive, maintained that quota given to the community in the Telugu states was not on the basis of religion. “In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, reservation to Muslims has not been provided on the basis of religion but on socio-economic conditions.”
Alleging that the PM was spreading hatred, Owaisi asserted, “The four percent reservation is not provided to Muslims in Telangana by snatching the rights of SCs, STs, and OBCs.”
The four-time parliamentarian asked Naidu whether he could question the stand of Modi on Muslim reservations. “I am sure that Jagan Mohan Reddy will win in AP, continue reservations for Muslims, and save the Constitution of India.”
The AIMIM MP also claimed that the BJP wanted to change the Constitution and scrap provisions of Articles 29 and 30, which aim to protect the interests of religious, linguistic, and cultural minorities in India. “If a person from Tamil Nadu wants to open a school in Hyderabad, these sections (29 and 30) allow him to do so, as minorities live here. But Modi and Amit Shah will remove these sections.”