VIJAYAWADA: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday accused the YSRC of spreading canards that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will repeal reservations for Muslims, if voted to power. He emphasised that it was the TDP which fought legally in support of 4% reservations for the Muslims.
Incidentally, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during an election campaign in Telangana recently, promised to scrap the 4% reservations implemented by the Congress and BRS governments in the State and provide the benefit to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), if NDA wins the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a gathering of Muslims in Nellore, Naidu alleged that the YSRC was resorting to false propaganda on various issues concerning the Muslims.
“I ask YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (Chief Minister and YRSC president), whether or not his party had extended unconditional support for the amendment of CAA and NRC in Parliament or not. An MP, who is now contesting for Nellore Lok Sabha seat, spoke in the Rajya Sabha in support of the Act. Now, they are claiming that injustice is being meted out to Muslims (by the NDA),” the TDP supremo said.
Pointing out that the issue pertaining to 4% reservations for Muslims is in the Supreme Court since 2014, the former chief minister recalled, “Through your (YSRC) leader, Aziz, who was then the Nellore Mayor, I had engaged lawyers and fought the case in favour of the reservations.”
Assuring Muslims that they will not be discriminated, the former chief minister said the TDP has been a part of the NDA earlier, too, but it had never allowed any kind of injustice to be done to the community.
“Once the NDA comes to power in these elections, all welfare schemes for Muslims that were rescinded will be revived. New schemes will also be introduced,” he asserted.
Stating that he was the one who had constructed a number of mosques in the State, he charged the YSRC with ignoring the welfare of the community. Naidu promised to extend Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to every Muslim for Haj pilgrimage, if the NDA forms government in the State.
“While the TDP has built a Haj House for the benefit of the Muslim community, Jagan has built palaces for his own comfort,” Naidu alleged.
Recounting that the Urdu University in Hyderabad was established during the TDP regime and when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, he said Haj Houses, too, were built there by the then TDP government.
He regretted that attacks on Muslim women were on the rise in the past five years in the State.
“Muslim brethren in Hyderabad are far ahead of people of their community in other parts of the country because of the initiatives taken by the TDP,” Naidu said.