TRS will be punished for cheating on 12% Muslim quota: Congress

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Tuesday organised a novel protest against the non-fulfilment of promise of 12% Muslim reservation by the TRS Government.

Led by TPCC Minorities Department chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, hundreds of Congress activists, organised a 12-minute silent protest across Telangana State at sharp 12 noon on Tuesday. While the main protest was held at Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Gandhi Bhavan premises, the Minorities Departments of DCCs organised the silent dharna at the district headquarters. The Congress leaders covered their mouths with black cloth and also tied a black ribbon on their hands.

Speaking to media persons after the protest, Shaik Abdullah Sohail said that the protest was aimed at reminding the Muslim community of failed promises of TRS Government. "KCR had promised to implement 12% Muslim reservation within four months after coming to power. He openly cheated the Muslim community for four-and-a-half years and did nothing to fulfil the promise. After the dissolution of Assembly, KCR has now even stopped talking about 12% Muslim quota. KCR is wrong if he thinks that Muslim could be fooled easily. We will not spare him for the cheating. He will have to pay a heavy price by losing our support in next elections," he said.

Abdullah Sohail informed that AICC Minorities Department Nadeed Javeed has directed all Congress workers to make 12% Muslim reservation a big issue in next elections. "Today's protest was first in the series of programmes to be held on TRS Government's failure to implement 12% Muslim quota. We just want to convey that Muslims might be poor, but they are not fools who would simply forget and forgive KCR for cheating. Like all other communities, Muslims too had lot of aspirations from Telangana State. We expected that the increase in quota by 8% in Telangana State would provide more opportunities for the community in jobs and education. Our community benefited a lot due to the 4% reservation given to poor Muslims under BC-E category. With the increase in quota to 12% we expected that our growth rate to be tripled. However, KCR cheated all the Muslims by not fulfilling his promise," he said.

The Congress leader also slammed the MIM for its silence on 12% Muslim reservation issues. "MIM is working as the Minority Cell of TRS and its President Asaduddin Owaisi is behaving like the spokesperson of TRS. Both TRS and MIM are trying hard to make the Muslim community forget the issue of 12% Muslim quota and we will not allow this to happen. We will sensitise each and every member of our community on how KCR cheated them not only on the promise of 12% quota, but other promises like granting of judicial powers to Wakf Board, promotion of Urdu language or sanction of loans to minority youth," he said while appealing the people not to vote for TRS in next elections as a punishment for not honouring the promises it made with the people.

TPCC Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, TPCC General Secretary Sk. Afzaluddin, Feroz Khan and other senior leaders also participated in the dharna.