HYDERABAD: Slamming the move to adopt an anti-CAA resolution in the Telangana assembly, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led government appeared to be indulging in "petty politics" and appeasement of minorities under "possible pressure" of AIMIM.
He accused AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi of indulging in politics on the grounds of religion and "trying to divide the Indian society."
"In a federal structure, the states have to implement the national laws and I would urge the Government of Telangana not to politicise this issue on petty political or appeasement grounds," he told reporters here.
The attack comes a day after the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to pass a resolution in the assembly against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), while urging the Centre to repeal last year's changes in the law.
Goyal quoted Congress leader and eminent lawyer Kapil Sibal as having said that there was no way a state could deny the implementation of CAA, when it was already passed by Parliament.
"Unfortunately, I think the government of Chandrasekhar Rao ji is indulging in petty politicization and appeasement of minorities only under the pressure, possibly of the MP from Hyderabad Mr (Asaduddin) Owaisi," he said.
"It is very, very unfortunate that the government of Telangana has been reduced to acting on the instructions of Owaisi, who is outright indulging in politics on the ground of religion, trying to divide Indian society on religious grounds. I hope wiser counsel will prevail," he added.
Claiming that CAA was not against any religion, he said it was not meant to strip anybody of citizenship.
He alleged that Owaisi and the TRS were misleading people and creating fear psychosis among them for political reasons.
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He charged the ruling TRS and Owaisi with trying to divide Telangana on the basis of religion by making a false promise of increasing reservation to Muslims from 4 to 12 per cent.
The "false reservation" had been struck down in the high court and the matter still going on in Supreme Court, he said.
The Union Minister said he felt elated when Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao recently spoke at an event in Delhi about the Centre and state working together.
"But here, a baseless proposal was passed in Cabinet on February 16. I would like the state government to withdraw it," he said.
Asked about a reported tweet of Owaisi that a berth in Varanasi-Indore train inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been allotted to God, Goyal said he feels that people of the country don't believe in his comments as 99 per cent of them were "baseless."
"And maybe, it is the attempt of Owaisi saab to mislead people in society in a way and to create a rift among people," he said.
The Mahakaal Express had its inaugural run (after Modi waved the green flag) and it was not meant for the public to travel as the regular train would be open for public from February 20, Goyal pointed out.
There cannot be any objection if some people had put up an image of Lord Shiva out of faith during the inaugural run, he said.
Owaisi should stop misleading people, he added.
Neither in the past nor in the future have there been any reservations vis--vis trains on the basis of religion, he said.
Claiming that Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had in Parliament said they were not against the amended Citizenship Act, the Union Minister wondered why they (Congress leaders) were misleading people for the last two months.
On the reported comments of former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria that 26/11 attack was planned to be projected as 'Hindu terrorism' after Ajmal Kasab was caught, he sought to know why Maria was saying it now.
"First thing is, why did Maria ji say all of this now? He should have said this when he was the police commissioner. In fact, in service rules, if senior police officers have some information, they should take action on it," he said.
"In my view, a deep plot was hatched through Congress-led UPA. We had seen another template of deceit at that time, when they tried to raise a false bogey of Hindu terror, on Chidambaram saying so," he said.
Noting that terror has no religion, he said the NDA government condemns the attempts by Congress then to frame some people based on false allegations.
Earlier, Goyal launched various development initiatives at the Secunderabad railway station here.