By TCN News,
Hyderabad: Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (CLMC) has condemned the saffron campaign for Mahbubnagar bypoll which resulted in the defeat of a Muslim candidate by BJP. CLMC held Telangana political JAC led by Kodandaram Reddy as well as TRS party Chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao responsible for the growing communalism in Telangana.
General Secretary of CLMC Lateef Mohd Khan said, it is a matter of deep concern that a single Muslim who contested strongly in the elections was not supported enough by the so called secular leaders. This election reflects the soft attitude of K. Chandrasekhar Rao of TRS and Kodandaram Reddy of JAC towards Hindutva ideology. Muslims have been continuously supporting the cause of Telangana even after being branded as Razakars, anti-Telanganites etc. But the so called secular leaders of Telangana failed to support their own Muslim candidate in Mahbubnagar constituency. Instead they had used Muslims for their political benefits as the Congress has always used Muslims as vote bank during elections at national level.”
Bypolls for Mahbubnagar along with six other assembly seats were held on Sunday and results were declared on Wednesday. TRS won four seats but lost Mahbubnagar to BJP where TRS had fielded only Muslim candidate.
Mr. Khan said that Muslims have been backstabbed on the name of Telangana, “They want Muslim faces, Muslim votes but they don’t want Muslim representation. Here we want to remind everyone that during the by-elections at Nizamabad in the year 2010 Muslims with a big heart supported a BJP candidate only for the sake of Telangana, and now here in Mahbubnagar, the other communities could not make a big heart such as Muslims did. Thus they have failed to be secular in practical manner. Therefore, here we question when Muslims have to again and again prove that they are secular, then why does not the same principle apply to non-Muslims? In fact Nizamabad elections proved that Muslims are the real secularists by nature.”
CLMC alleged that the real factor behind the defeat of a Muslim candidate at Mahbubnagar was caste and religion politics. “KCR did not spare enough time for campaign and Kodandaram Reddy representing TJAC did not support TRS candidate who was a Muslim, because the BJP candidate belonged to Reddy community. KCR and Kodandram Reddy did not dare to oppose the Reddy candidate.”
The general secretary of CLMC asked the Muslims to become politically aware, and not to believe the oral wordings of so called secular leaders. He said, “The Telangana movement is no more a people’s movement. The aspirations of Telangana people have died. Every so called secular leader is in race of Telangana for their personal benefits.”
He said that Telangana has failed in the litmus test for secularism which was proved in the Mahboobnagar by-elections. According to CLMC “the fate of Telangana movement is clear before us, and the movement has lost its credibility because the 18% Muslim population of the Telangana region have lost confidence in the movement.”
CLMC demanded KCR to resign to win back Muslim support once again for the movement. Mr. Khan said, “If KCR has even a little value for self-respect then he should immediately resign from his parliamentary seat of Mahboobnagar and not only field a Muslim candidate from there but also get him elected, then only Muslims’ confidence in the movement can be restored.”