Rao’s remarks came in the wake of the central government blocking the Telangana state assembly’s resolution to provide enhanced quotas for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in the poll-bound state.
Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telangana Chief Minister and chief of Telugu Rashtra Samiti (TRS) K Chandrasekhar Rao said that both the prime minister and his party are afflicted with a “disease” that has caused “communal madness” in the country.
“Narendra Modi and the BJP have a disease…In everything they see, they see Hindu-Muslim (divide). They don’t see anything else and so they did not do it (raise the quotas)…they have kept it pending,” Rao said while addressing an election rally at Narsampet.
Rao’s remarks came in the wake of the central government blocking the Telangana state assembly’s resolution to provide enhanced quotas for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in the poll-bound state.
Addressing another election meeting in Mahabubabad, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi president reiterated his accusations and blamed the Centre for “religious madness”.
Telangana has passed a resolution to increase the reservation quota for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes from 4 to 12 per cent and 6 to 10 per cent respectively in state government jobs and educational institutions. The central government has been holding the implementation of the resolution despite being passed successfully by the state assembly.
“Narendra Modi government has a disease. That is minorities (versus) Hindus….they are in that state of ‘mataparamaina pichi’ (communal madness). It is because of this they blocked reservations for STs and Muslims,” Rao added.
Referring to next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Telangana caretaker CM stated that he will guarantee the implementation of raised quota for STs and Muslims if the people of the state elect TRS candidates from all 17 Lok Sabha seats.
“Not only the Assembly elections…with kindness, help us win all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. Only if we win can we make Delhi bend its neck. We will get our ST reservation, we will get our Muslim reservation,” Rao stated.
The TRS leader accused both the BJP and the Congress of aspiring to exercise complete control over the states.
“It doesn’t matter which of the two parties forms the government at the Centre. Their attitude is the same. Both Congress and the BJP want to concentrate all powers over states into their hands. This is their culture,” he was quoted as saying.
