BJP caught on a sticky wicket as Cong unmasks it on quota: Bhatti

Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka alleged that CM Revanth Reddy was being framed by Delhi police at the behest of ruling BJP at the Centre for speaking against the saffron party's intent to scrap reservations.

Addressing a press conference in Gandhi Bhavan while condemning the way ‘federal spirit’ was undermined by the ruling BJP, Bhatti said that those who are at the helm are trying to threaten the Chief Minister of a State for ‘telling the truth’ by framing ‘wrong cases’. “This is a dangerous trend, as the federal spirit is being sacrificed on the altar of the autocratic way of approach by the ruling BJP. There is a need for saving the federal spirit as India’s democracy thrives on multi-party democracy. This is nothing but curtailing the freedom of expression. This was the major reason why Britishers were driven out of India,” the deputy CM pointed out.

Responding to questions over Amit Shah’s reference to Muslim reservation but not on other categories, Bhatti said that since the BJP’s mask has slipped as they are trying to come up with all sorts of explanations now. “It is the BJP’s and RSS’ vision to scrap reservations.Now that the mask has slipped, they are trying to cover it up. I can quote several RSS and BJP leaders who have openly spoken against reservations in the past,” Bhatti said while quoting M G Vaidya, Ananth Kumar Hegde, former LS speaker Sumitra Majahan amongst others. On the Medigadda barrage issue, Bhatti said that until the ‘judicial inquiry’ is completed, nothing can be said about the functioning of the project. He said that there were several technical issues involved and experts with complete knowledge of the projects were being roped in.