Hyderabad: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday, November 27, hit out at Karnataka Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar over his reservation of the BRS’s poll promise of establishing an IT Park for Muslims claiming that the party’s “real anti-Muslim face” was unveiled.
In a bid to woo Muslim voters in the state, Telangana chief minister KCR has assured of an IT Park for Muslims in the state to be established near Pahadi Shareef.
Slamming the opposition parties in the state, the leader of the BRS’ “friendly party”, said that the Congress and BJP were opposing government support for Muslim startup founders & entrepreneurs of Telangana. “Dear DK Shivakumar. You have not heard of many things, doesn’t mean that they are impossible.”
Countering Shivakumar’s comment that “youth, children, and women don’t have any caste”, he questioned the senior Congress leader over his party’s need for a caste census in the state. “If youth, children and women don’t have any caste, why is your leader promising caste census?”
Stressing that Muslims in the state were not just a vote bank but full citizens, he stated that they too are qualified for a fair share in the state’s progress. “Providing them with support to start their businesses ensures that they are job-creators & not just job-seekers. They aren’t getting anything solely based on religion but on the basis of empirical data of backwardness.”
Owaisi further added that the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd has a policy in place reserving 12 per cent of industrial plot allotments to Scheduled Castes that the Sudheer Commission Report had recommended be extended to backward Muslims.
Further clarifying, Owaisi said that the IT Park for Muslims is not exclusive to them but “special support is being provided to them so that they can overcome the discrimination that they face.”
According to a report by India Today, the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) between the years 2007-2010 received at least 3838 complaints from Muslims over discrimination by scheduled commercial banks for obtaining loans or opening bank accounts. The figures escalated each year.
Shivakumar questions BRS’s ‘Muslim IT Park’ promise
The Congress leader Shivakumar expressing apprehension over the BRS’s ‘IT Park for Muslims’ assurance said that he had not heard of this type of policy adding that KCR has “weakened” himself.
“How can it be possible? How can you make an IT park for a minority? I have not heard of this type of policy in the entire country. You can do for youths, for women, you cannot differentiate on caste. This shows that he has weakened himself. The youth, children, and women don’t have any caste… You can promote minority, schedule caste… but not you cannot make a park for them,” Shivakumar had said.
