Hyderabad: Chief minister A Revanth Reddy Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was blocking approval of the two BC reservation bills and an ordinance to remove the 50% cap on reservations because of his anger at Rahul Gandhi‘s fight for education, employment, and political empowerment of Backward Classes.“If PM Modi and Union minister G Kishan Reddy have anything against Rahul Gandhi’s stand for justice to the BCs, let them book more cases against him individually. Already, there are several cases pending. But they should stop blocking the BC quota bills. Modi and Kishan Reddy should take up the issue with the President and ensure assent for the two bills passed by the Telangana assembly and the ordinance. The BJP has the power to do it,” Revanth said.He was speaking at the 375th birth anniversary celebrations of Sardar Sarvai Papanna Goud Maharaj at Ravindra Bharati here. Revanth hit out at both the BJP and BRS for ‘undermining’ BC rights. While the BJP, he said, was using Muslim reservations as a pretext to block higher BC quota, the previous BRS govt led by K Chandrasekhar Rao restricted reservations to 50% in the Panchayat Raj Act of 2018.Revanth said his govt had conducted a caste survey and passed two bills providing 42% BC reservations, along with an ordinance to remove the 50% ceiling. These were forwarded by the governor to the President. “When we realised assent was being delayed, we held a massive dharna at Jantar Mantar. Leaders and MPs from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other states joined us. But neither BJP nor BRS leaders participated. That dharna was not for Congress’ political gain but for the empowerment of bahujans. Their absence exposed both parties as ‘anti-BC’,” he said.Rejecting BJP’s argument on Muslim quota, Revanth said: “The Constitution does not allow religion-based reservations. If there were any, the Supreme Court would strike them down within minutes. Show us where religion-based reservations exist in our 42% BC quota bills. This is a BJP conspiracy to deny BCs their rights under the guise of opposing Muslim quota.”He pointed out that Muslim reservations under the BC category have existed for over 56 years. “If the BJP really opposes them, let them remove them in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh first,” he said, urging BC communities to see through “these conspiracies.”He said BC empowerment can happen only through education, employment, and political representation and guaranteed reservations.The CM laid the foundation for the installation of a statue of Sardar Sarvai Papanna near the secretariat.BoxCM Revanth Reddy and deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka will join Rahul Gandhi’s Bihar padayatra. The CM alleged that BJP was deleting names of lakhs of voters across states. “Vote chori is being done to win elections. In Bihar, 65 lakh names were deleted. It happened in Maharashtra, and it will happen in Telangana. People who are alive are shown as dead, while outsiders are enrolled as voters. Rahul Gandhi exposed this conspiracy, but instead of answers, the ECI asked him for affidavits. Is this justice?” he asked.
