BRS says Congress’ Minority Declaration is a conspiracy to create conflict among BCs, Minorities

BRS working president K T Rama Rao deemed it "unnecessary" to conduct a separate caste census for the minorities along with the BCs, asserting that it would harm both BCs and the minorities.

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has dubbed the Congress’ Minority Declaration as an “absurd proposal” and demanded that it be withdrawn immediately. The declaration appeared to be a “deliberate attempt to create conflict between Backward Classes (BCs) and minorities in Telangana”. Under the declaration, the Congress promised to “conduct a caste census within six months and ensure fair reservations for all backward classes, including minorities, in jobs, education, and government schemes.”

At a media conference here on Friday, the BRS working president K T Rama Rao pointed out that the Constitution already recognises Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and other sections as religious minorities. He deemed it “unnecessary” to conduct a separate caste census for the minorities along with the BCs, asserting that it would harm both BCs and the minorities. “Such a move will make various minorities institutions including a separate Ministry, Minorities Commission, Minorities Finance Corporation and other bodies redundant,” he pointed out.

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Further, the Minister suspected that by seeking to include minorities among the BCs, the Telangana Congress which is now led by a former BJP-RSS associate, was shifting closer to the BJP ideology which is known to term the Muslims as “Pasmanda Muslims”. He also ridiculed the Congress party’s assurance to allot Rs 4,000 crore for the minorities welfare.

Rama Rao pointed out that with the growth in the State budget under the BRS, the allocations for the minorities welfare will surpass Rs 5,000 crore. He stated that as against Rs 930 crore spent by the Congress in 10 years of its 2004-14 tenure, the BRS had spent Rs 10,139 crore between 2014-15 and 2023-24. He stated that Telangana’s outlay for minorities welfare was far higher than that of Rajasthan and Karnataka which alloted Rs 2,000 in their respective State budgets.

Fielding a volley of questions, the BRS working president said the Telangana Congress was in cahoots with the BJP. He pointed out that the Congress was strategically fielding weak candidates against BJP candidates Bandi Sanjay, D Arvind, T Raja Singh and others, as part of a prior understanding. The Congress candidates will lose their deposits in those respective constituencies. He also exuded confidence in defeating the rival candidates in Goshamahal, Kodangal and Huzurabad.

Rama Rao questioned the credibility of the Congress party for the nomination of leaders and their family members for multiple constituencies in Telangana, contrary to its Udaypur Declaration prohibiting tickets to two or more members of a family.

Taking a dig at TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy’s recent remarks to take up land pooling and building a new city at Rachakonda as well as operate vegetable markets in three shifts round-the-clock, the Minister sarcastically stated that such remarks only unveil the “great vision” of the TPCC president for the State. He reiterated that the BRS had successfully improved amenities and services to improve the lives of people in Hyderabad and would continue to improve them further.

He asserted that the BRS was committed to minority reservations based on the socio-economic conditions as recommended by the Sachar Committee and Sudhir Committee reports. He reminded that the Telangana Assembly had passed a resolution in this regard on April 16 of 2017 and sent it to the Centre for approval. “Unfortunately, the Central government has remained inimical and obstructive to its implementation so far,” he added.