Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen Statement On Telangana Issue

Majlis ittehadul Muslimeen Leader Akbaruddin Owaisi addressing MiM held Public Meeting In Hyderabad.


All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has
decided to extend full support to the Congress in the
byelection to Lok Sabha from Karimnagar constituency.
in the bypoll scheduled on December 4.

The AIMIM has taken this decision in view of the
prevailing political situation in the state and its
consistent stand on issues concerning the Muslim
community. In the 2004 Assembly/Lok Sabha elections,
our party, alongwith other constituent organizations
of United Muslim Forum, had actively campaigned in
favour of the Congress alliance and against the then
NDA constituents—the Telugu Desam-BJP alliance—because
both the parties were responsible for subjecting the
Muslims and other minorities to severe harassment
under NDA’s rule during 1998-2004.
At that time, our party took a decision to strengthen
the secular forces in the country and root out the
communal forces from power in a democratic way,
through proper and effective use of the right to vote.
As everyone knows, the NDA lost power at the Centre
and the Telugu Desam was dislodged from power in
Andhra Pradesh, as various sections of the society as
well as the minorities voted overwhelmingly for
Congress and its allies in the 2004 elections.
The UPA included several issues concerning the
minorities in its Common Minimum Programme. Our party
– AIMIM—supports the UPA government as it is a secular
formation committed to giving a fair deal to the
minorities in the country. Our party met and
represented to UPA chairperson and AICC president
Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on
the issues and problems concerning the minorities,
particularly Muslims, and they have responded
positively to our suggestions.
On our suggestions, the Prime Minister announced a
separate Ministry for Minorities. Hence, the Ministry
of Minority Affairs came into being on January 29,
2006, with a wide charter that includes overall
policy, planning, coordination, evaluation and review
of the regulatory and developmental programmes of the
minority communities. The Ministry of Minorities
Affairs is headed by Union Minister Abdul Rahman
Antulay, an eminent lawyer and former chief minister
of Maharashtra.
The Corpus Fund of Maulana Azad Education Fund has
been from Rs 70 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 100 crore in
2005-06 and doubled to Rs 200 crore in the current
financial year. The share capital of the National
Minorities Development and Finance Corporation has
been raised from Rs 500 crore to Rs 650 crore. A
merit-cum-means based scholarship scheme for 20,000
students, belonging to minorities, to pursue higher
education has been introduced this year.
Reports of the High Level Committee, constituted by
the Prime Minister under the chairmanship of Justice
Rajender Sachar, to examine social, economic and
educational status of the Muslim community in India
and the National Commission for Religious and
Linguistic Minorities to suggest criteria for
identification of socially and economically backward
sections among religious and linguistic minorities,
are expected to be submitted to the government soon.
Basing on their recommendations, our party expects and
exhorts the UPA government to take affirmative action
and initiatives for the overall development of the
Muslim community, which is more backward than the
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward
Classes in the country.

Reservations issue:

Nearer home, the Congress government in Andhra
Pradesh, under Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar
Reddy’s stewardship, has taken some steps in the last
two and a half years to fulfil the promises made to
the minorities in the manifesto for 2004 elections.
The government sought to implement five percent
reservations for the Muslims by including the
community in the list of backward classes. However, it
is unfortunate that the Andhra Pradesh High Court
struck down the GO issued in 2004 and the Ordinance
promulgated in 2005 providing these reservations.
Our party holds the Sangh Parivar mainly responsible
for depriving the Muslim community of the benefits
under the five percent reservations in professional
educational institutions and public employment. On
both the occasions, Sangh parivar activists took the
issue to the High Court. It is unfortunate that the AP
High Court failed to do justice to the Muslims.
Rajender Sachar Committee has pointed out the sad
state of affairs of the Muslim community but our
judiciary does not appreciate the rationale behind the
reservations for Muslims.

The Muslims have, thus, failed to get any justice from
the judiciary so far, even as the matter is pending
before the Supreme Court of India. The state
government has filed its appeal last year but even
after an year, the Supreme Court has not begun the
hearings in the case since the full constitutional
bench is yet to be constituted for the purpose. On the
other hand, the Supreme Court also rejected the state
government’s plea to stay the High Court’s judgement
so as to allow the government to implement
reservations for Muslims in the 2006-07 academic year.
Our party also holds the view that while the Sangh
Parivar is to be blamed for dragging the issue to the
courts and the judiciary must share the responsibility
for not doing justice to the Muslims, the State
government cannot escape its share of the blame for
not effectively defending the reservations before the
AP High Court or the Supreme Court. Both the present
advocate general and his immediate predecessor had
failed to argue the case properly, thereby leading to
‘miscarriage of justice’ on the Muslim reservations
issue.

While the issue of five percent reservations for
Muslims in Andhra Pradesh is awaiting the Supreme
Court judgement, there are demands being made by
Muslims and other sections of the society – based on
the Sachar Committee findings on the sad state of
affairs of the Muslim community—for affirmative action
through the inclusion of the Muslims in the OBC list
and providing reservations for them in the entire
country. Our party supports the demand for
reservations for Muslims nation-wide on the basis of
their socio-economic and educational backwardness.

Telangana issue:

Neglect of Telangana and its backwardness in various
sectors over the last five decades is a fact which no
one can deny. At the same time, our party feels that
separate Telangana state cannot be the only solution.
There can be other options too. On behalf of Muslim
community, which comprises a population of 70 lakh as
per 2001 census in the state, our party has suggested
some short-term and long-term initiatives on
Telangana.

First and foremost, there is immediate need for
revival of regional development boards for all the
three regions—Telangana, Coastal Andhra and
Rayalaseema—to ensure that corrective steps are taken
to remove regional imbalances and disparities. Our
party also demands a special package for Telangana
region – with outlay of Rs 10,000 crore—to accelerate
the pace of development in various sectors in this
backward region. As the minorities—particularly
Muslims—are the most affected lot, a special package
for their socio-economic and educational upliftment is
also required. Our party also demands that GO 610
should be implemented in toto.

On the crucial issue of Telangana, our party feels
that the Muslims have as much stake over the future of
Andhra Pradesh as others-- the people and leaders of
Telangana and other regions. Our party insists that
the government and the ruling party at the Centre and
in the State should not take any decision on the
future of Andhra Pradesh, without ascertaining the
views and concerns of Muslim community in the state.

Our party has urged the UPA government to give due
weightage to the views of Muslim community on
Telangana issue. Our party also feels that to decide
on the future of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the
demand for separate Telangana state, this issue
requires proper and indepth study in the larger
perspective. Hence, our party is committed to the
demand that the Second States Reorganisation
Commission should be constituted to go into all the
aspects of Telangana, including the demand for
separate state.

In the meantime, our party would like the State
government to focus on the development of Telangana in
all fields and welfare of all sections of the people
in the region through higher allocations for
irrigation, power, agriculture, education, medicare
and welfare sectors.

We welcome the launching of work on various irrigation
projects in Telangana region in the last two and a
half years, establishment of Telangana University at
Nizamabad and the recent announcement for setting up
another university at Bhoodan Pochampally and a
government medical college and a university
engineering college in Telangana.