Hyderabad: Pointing out that the YSRCP has extended unconditional support for amendment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Parliament, the TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu, said that the chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is resorting to ‘mispropaganda’ that the reservations for Muslims will be repealed if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comes to power.
“The issue of 4 per cent reservations for Muslims has been in the Supreme Court since 2014. All we can do is invest in lawyers and argue in the court. The TDP fought for the issue in the SC by putting up lawyers,” he said.
Naidu on Sunday, April 28, held an interaction with Muslims at Nellore and flatly denied the rumours of repealing the reservations for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh.
He said that soon after the NDA comes to power in the state Rs 1 lakh financial assistance will be extended to every Muslim who visits Mecca on Haj pilgrimage.
The former chief minister also reminded the Muslims that it is the TDP that has accorded state festival status for Rotiyaan ki Eid (Rottela Panduga).
“While the TDP has built a Haj House for the benefit of the Muslim community, Jagan has built palaces for his comfort,” Chandrababu Naidu informed Muslims who gathered in large numbers to greet the TDP supremo.
The election manifesto announced by Jagan is an utter flop before the Super-Six of the TDP declared earlier, he added.
‘Muslims known for trust and courage’
“The entire Muslim community is known for trust and courage and they always believe in hard work,” he said and added that the community has priority in all sectors.
Chandrababu told them that if there are no Muslims there is no development as the majority of the community depends on auto repair works in all urban areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Asking them whether any justice was done to them during Jagan’s rule, he said that the administration should always be people-friendly and gain their confidence.
Stating that he had run the state with development as his priority, he said that now Hyderabad has got global recognition “only because of the steps taken by the TDP regime.”
“Muslim brethren in Hyderabad are far ahead of their community in other parts of the country, in fact, the world, is because of the initiatives taken by the TDP,” he said.
‘TDP never allowed injustice to Muslims’
Naidu informed them that though the TDP was part of the NDA even earlier too but never allowed any kind of injustice to be done to the community.
Chandrababu Naidu also pointed out various other welfare measures implemented for the Muslim community during the TDP regime and regretted that attacks on Muslim women have been on the rise in the past five years in the state.
“When a Muslim woman in Nandikotkur was coming from masjid after performing namaz her burkha was removed only to humiliate her and her family members were mercilessly beaten up, Mr Chandrababu said,” questioning if such incidents took place when the TDP was in power all these years, he asked.
The TDP also voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Parliament when it was introduced in 2019.
