By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: Hatred, it seems, runs deeper than seen among Urdu dailies in Hyderabad. Yesterday there was a united conference on Muslim reservation attended by Muslim political and religious leaders of different views with several thousand people from several parts of Andhra Pradesh, but today there is no word about it in top Urdu dailies like Munsif and Siasat. MP Asaduddin Owaisi was the leading force behind the conference and he owns a growing Urdu daily Etemaad. But reasons may be many.
It was really shocking that when there is talk all around for Muslim reservation, the renowned and esteemed Munsif and Siasat dailies just buried the news about the conference, the biggest one in the city on the issue and the first after the recent hackling of 4% quota by court for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh.
One who does not know much about the local politics may conclude the black out by the two was because of presumably a deep hatred among Urdu dailies. However, there may be political angle. Hyderabad MP Owaisi heads Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen, the leading Muslim political party in the state Assembly with 7 MLAs. In the Lok Sabha election last year he faced a tough fight from Zahid Ali Khan, Editor, Siasat, but won convincingly.
The blackout is not understandable as the conference was not by owner of a ‘rival’ paper but by Muslim Muttaheda Majlise Amal, an umbrella body of different Muslim organizations, and attended by clerics of several sects of the Muslim society, and Muslim politicians of different political parties including the ruling Congress and Opposition TDP.
On the other hand, Telugu and English dailies gave good coverage to the conference attended by roughly 50,000 people.
Top Telugu daily Eenadu published the news in five columns on third page with impressive pictures. Sakshi, another Telugu daily, put it on front page while Vaarta gave half page to it.
English papers The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle also gave space to the event.