Congress, TD fail to discuss quota in time

The Congress and the Telugu Desam MLAs on Tuesday wasted the time of the Assembly by limiting their speeches to accuse each other of denying justice to Muslims and patting themselves for uplifting the community.

Participating in a short discussion on four per cent reservation to Muslims, the members of the two parties spoke on several issues except the reservation issue, though the debate was meant to provide concrete suggestions to the government in the run up to the hearing in the Supreme Court.

There was an uproar in the House with Congress member, Mr Mastan Vali accusing the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, of being “shameless” for receiving Mr L.K. Advani’s rath yatra, which was conducted against Muslims.

He said the TD had no moral right to talk about Muslims as Mr Naidu had joined hands with Hindutva forces. For the first time, the Congress member finished his speech without mentioning the contribution of the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in implementing Muslim reservations.

Ironically, the TD members did not react immediately after Mr Vali’s comments. They realised the essence of the Congress member’s comments half an hour later after the Majlis floor leader, Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi, came into the House and objected to Mr Vali’s remarks.

Mr Owaisi asked why the Congress member should use unparliamentary language against Mr Naidu. There was a din in the House when the TD member Mr Revanth Reddy referred to communal riots in the state capital before the advent of the TD in 1983, demolition of Babri mosque under P.V. Narasimha Rao’s rule and Shilanyas at Ayodhya being allowed by the then PM Rajiv Gandhi.