It appears Telangana chief minister and the Congress have given up the hope on securing the Central government approval for the 42% reservations for the backward classes in the local bodies, education and employment.
It was evident from the way President of India Droupadi Murmu refused to give appointment to the delegation of the Congress led by Revanth Reddy in New Delhi on Thursday, despite seeking time almost 10 days ago.
A frustrated Revanth Reddy addressed a press conference in the evening and said the Congress party had done its duty to get 42% quota for the BCs and taken the battle to Delhi, but it appears the Centre was reluctant to grant the same.
He accused the Centre of deliberately stalling the bills passed by the state assembly seeking to grant 42% reservations for the BCs.
“My entire cabinet has been camping in the national capital for the last three days to bring pressure on the Centre for granting approval for the bills, but there is no response,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said his cabinet and the Congress party had come to the conclusion that the appointment with the President was denied under pressure from the Central government, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
“This is unfortunate, painful, and an insult to the people of Telangana,” he said.
He alleged that the BJP was spreading a false narrative that the increased reservations for the OBCs was meant for giving reservations to the Muslims under OBC quota.
“There is no such provision in the bills we sent to the Centre granting reservations to Muslims. In local body elections, SC, ST, and OBC reservations are allotted en bloc. There are no specific reservations for religions, castes or sub-caste,” he said.
He said reservations are determined based on social and economic backwardness.
“There is no provision in the Constitution for religion-based reservations; we haven’t provided any such reservations. Still, the BJP leaders are distorting facts,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Revanth Reddy said if the Centre did not grant 42% quota for the BCs, the only option before the Congress party is to allot them 42% party tickets in the local body elections and bring moral pressure on the other parties to do so.
