Hyderabad: "I declare Urdu as the second official language in Telangana." This statement by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on the floor of the Telangana Assembly has kicked up a language war in the state, with the BJP coming out to ask why Hindi or English are not being considered for the same.
Accusing the Chief Minister of playing vote bank politics, Krishna Sagar Rao, BJP spokesperson told CNN-News18, “We strongly condemn this Muslim appeasement move by the Chief Minister. First, he announced a special IT corridor for Muslims, which was bizarre and now this impractical move of making Urdu the second official language. People prefer English or Hindi, as it does value addition and help them with jobs, etc. We completely reject this move as it will lead to splurging of public money and nothing else.”
In this latest move, Chief Minister KCR has asked all government offices starting from the Chief Minister’s Office to District Collectorate, to receive all petitions in Urdu as well.
All competitive examinations will also be conducted in Urdu.
Not just making Urdu an official language, earlier the CM had announced that minorities’ development and welfare will be among the top priority programmes being implemented by the state government.
However, the most controversial move was to develop an exclusive industrial estate and IT Corridor for Muslims.
Showering the minorities with several such schemes, he has also asked his officers to work with more dedication towards the minorities, who are, like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, living in poverty.
The Telangana government had even passed a Bill to secure 12 percent reservation for the Muslims, which will ultimately increase their reservation in jobs and educational institutions. The Bill is yet to be approved by the Centre.
Reiterating his commitment to fulfill these promises, the KCR has said that if the Centre fails to take a call, they may even consider moving the Supreme Court to get a minority quota.
As political parties gear up of for the state Assembly elections in 2019, the politics over minority rights or ‘appeasement’ is likely to heat up over the coming days.
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