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Days after coming up with its “Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) Declaration”, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) is now preparing the party’s “Minorities Declaration” on similar lines in a bid to reach out to the Muslim and Christian communities ahead of the state Assembly elections due in three months.
Intensifying its efforts in this regard, the Congress Wednesday constituted various sub-groups of its Minorities Declaration Committee to get feedback from various stakeholders.
Through these ‘declarations’ the Congress is looking to counter the welfare moves by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR, which recently extended the financial assistance scheme meant for the Backward Classes (BCs) to the minorities.
In early June, the KCR government launched a new welfare scheme to provide financial assistance to eligible BC beneficiaries. This “Economic Support Scheme with 100 per cent subsidy’’ proposes to provide a one-time aid of Rs 1 lakh to one member of the BC beneficiary family. On July 23, the government extended the same scheme to Muslims and Christians, and invited applications from all eligible beneficiaries.
The BCs make up 52 per cent of Telangana’s nearly 4 crore population, while Muslims and Christians account for over 12 per cent and 1 per cent of it, respectively.
The TPCC’s Minorities Declaration Committee held its second meeting Wednesday, which was chaired by the TPCC Political Affairs Committee convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir. A slew of the panel’s members attended the meeting, including convener Zafar Javeed, Shaik Abdullah Sohail, Uzma Shakir, Faheem Qureshi, B Ezekiel, Syed Azmathullah Hussaini, Deepak John, and Rashed Khan.
The committee firmed up a list of leaders and representatives from various religious and social organisations, who would be approached by the party to seek suggestions for the Minorities Declaration. It formed four-five sub-groups that would undertake these interactions over the next three-four days.
“We have also decided to hold an interactive meeting with various intellectuals, organisations, civil society groups, and other stakeholders to discuss the proposed Minorities Declaration,” Shabbir said. “This meeting will be held next week in Hyderabad and will be attended by top Congress leaders. It will be an interactive meeting where we will facilitate individuals and organisations to submit their suggestions directly.”
Shabbir also said that prior to the release of the Minorities Declaration, some meetings of the Declaration Committee will also be held in districts with significant minority population. “Our intention is to gather as many ideas and suggestions as possible from the community members,” he said.
Of Telangana’s total 119 Assembly seats, there are at least 35 Assembly constituencies with sizeable Muslim population, with both the BRS and the Congress targeting them to woo the community.
TPCC senior vice-president and Declaration panel convener Javeed said, “We will be approaching Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, and all other minorities so as to incorporate their wishes and aspirations in the Declaration as well as our poll Manifesto.”
Shabbir said that through the Minorities Declaration the Congress party intends to “expose the failures of the BRS government in implementing the minorities welfare schemes”. It would also convey that only the Congress “cares for minorities and can ensure their development”, he claimed. “It will be a comprehensive and visionary document that will cover all aspects of minorities welfare.”
Javeed said several organisations have already started sharing their suggestions with the panel members. He said that a dedicated WhatsApp number and email ID for sending suggestions to the party would be shared by Thursday.
Last Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a rally at Chevella near Hyderabad, during which he trained his guns at KCR, alleging that the BRS supremo was hand in glove with the BJP. Kharge also released the party’s SCs, STs Declaration, which is a set of its 12 promises for the welfare and development of the Dalit and tribal communities.
The Congress’s SCs, STs Declaration proposes to increase the SCs quota to 18 per cent and STs quota to 12 per cent on the basis of their respective populations, financial assistance of Rs 12 lakh to their families, allotment of plots and Rs 6 lakh for construction of house, and the scholarship and financial grants to the communities’ students among other pledges that the party says it would implement if voted to power in the upcoming polls.
The TPCC’s Minority Declaration would mirror the SCs, STs Declaration, promising a range of welfare benefits to the Muslim and Christian communities.
Its victory in Karnataka seems to have energised the state Congress. Clawing back from its dismal performance in the 2018 Assembly polls, the party is now targeting the BRS aggressively, with its leaders expressing confidence about clinching the polls. The grand old party had earlier appeared to cede its principal Opposition space to the BJP to a significant degree.
