Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the NDA government had delayed convening the Winter Session of Parliament to avoid debate on issues like GST rollout, demonetisation, and the Rafale aircraft deal. “The whole country knows that the reason for the delay is to avoid debate and questions raised on GST, demonetisation and the Rafale aircraft deal on which the government has fallen flat,” Mr Owaisi said. He said the Congress had committed similar “abuses” in the past.
On the Congress agreeing to offer a quota to Patidars (Patels) in poll-bound Gujarat, Mr Owaisi said he would like to ask the Congress and the BJP if the Muslim community was better off than Patels in Gujarat, the Jats in Haryana and the Gujjars in Rajasthan.
“If yes, present empirical evidence. The empirical evidence of the social and educational backwardness of Muslims is in the form of the Sachar Committee, the Mishra Commission, Kundu Committee report, the National Sample Survey and Census 2011,” Mr Owaisi said. He said Muslims were being denied reservations in the name of religion. Mr Owaisi said the quota should be given on the basis of backwardness.
“Whenever we raise this issue, the BJP-Sangh Parivar says it (reservation) cannot be given in the name of religion. I am not asking in the name of religion. You give it to those who are backward within the Muslim community,” he said. The MP alleged that the BJP was indulging in “majority appeasement” whereas the Congress was doing things for its own electoral advantage. He said he was not against giving quotas to Patels and other communities, Mr Owaisi asked why the BJP and the Congress were not acting on the reports over social and educational backwardness of Muslims.
