Muslims deserve reservations, says Asaduddin Owaisi

Beed:
The former Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra kept the Muslim community backward and it deserves reservations, MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has said. The Sachar committee and other similar panels had recommended reservations for the Muslim community, he pointed out.

"The Congress-NCP government kept the community backward and denied it benefit of reservations," Owaisi alleged. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief was addressing an election rally on Tuesday.

As per the Articles 15 and 16 of Indian Constitution, a community which has remained backward should be given reservations, he said. The Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad clarified that his party is not against the reservation to the Marathas, but Muslims too should get their right.

After the Bombay High Court stayed the Congress-NCP government's decision to offer quotas to Marathas and Muslims last year, the new BJP-Shiv Sena government got passed a Bill in the state Assembly in December 2014 which gave reservation to Marathas in education and government jobs, but left out the Muslims.

Owaisi also said that many Muslims are languishing in prisons without trial and even charge sheets are not filed for years together in such cases. Muslims account for only four per cent of Maharashtra police force and three to four per cent of government servants, therefore, reservation is necessary for them, he said.

Journalist-turned MIM legislator Imtiyaz Jaleel said that Muslims were more backward than Dalits and for the last 65 years, they have been treated only as vote bank. "Now, the NCP and Congress are scared as we (MIM) have entered the fray. We will contest the municipal elections," Jaleel said.

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