Hyderabad: Telangana’s Congress Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy faced sharp condemnation after stating at an event on 13 August that minority students are “skilled labourers” who could reassemble a Rafale jet, but quickly forget what they study. The remarks have stirred a controversy amongst Muslims in the state, with political leaders from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacting sharply.
Ironically, these statements were made at the ‘Minorities Excellence Summit’, where students from minority communities were to be felicitated for excelling in various fields. The event took place at the Adivasi Bhavan in Hyderabad, with more than 750 students attending the programme.
The students honoured at the event are those who excelled in Group-I, Group-II, IIT-JEE, EAPCET and other competitive examinations, including toppers of the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TGMREIS) in SSC and Intermediate examinations.
Civil society leaders slammed the remarks as an “unnecessary stereotype” that reduced and restricted the community’s achievements to that of being “handymen and puncturewallahs”.
However, while addressing the students, the CM also said that minorities could contribute to the country as teachers and produce “heroes for the nation”. He remarked that he considered Hindus and Muslims as his two eyes and that the Congress government in Telangana was committed to providing benefits from welfare schemes in equal measure to both communities.
But with the damage already done, no senior Congress leader was willing to defend the chief minister. “It is not the first time that the chief minister has made such comments. He needs to clarify these comments himself,” a Congress spokesperson, who is a member of the Minorities Cell, told ThePrint.
Syed Majid, a socio-political activist and a civil society leader, said, “The CM has degraded the entire Muslim community, not just the students in Telangana. The Muslims in Telangana voted for the Congress, choosing the party over Owaisi’s MIM. If this is the way he chooses to describe the community that has stood by him… such comments will have a larger impact on both the Punjab and Delhi elections,” he told ThePrint.
The CM’s remarks were a sharp contrast to what former Indian cricket captain and Minister for Minorities Welfare, Mohd Azharuddin said. While Azharuddin stressed the importance of recognising and encouraging academic excellence among minority students, stating that achievements of the toppers would inspire more young people to pursue higher education and competitive examinations with confidence, Revanth Reddy’s remarks calling these students “skilled labour” seemed reductionist, the Congress leader quoted above said.
Mohd Azharuddin and the Waqf Board Chairman Syed Azmatullah Hussaini, who were also part of the event, did not attempt to clarify what the CM meant.
The CM touched another raw nerve when he referred to the minority community’s electricity consumption in the Old City’ “People, including MLAs in the Assembly, often complain that members of minority communities steal electricity in parts of the Old City (of Hyderabad) and do not pay their bills,” the CM said.
Revanth Reddy said the Gruha Jyoti scheme, among the six guarantees the Congress government made at the time of the 2023 Assembly elections, was helping minorities in the Old City access 200 units of electricity free of cost.
The BJP, responding to these remarks, questioned the Congress’ ‘appeasement policy’ and alleged it was providing free electricity to those who had arrears.
Tulla Veerender Goud, the BJP Telangana secretary, said in a post on X Friday: “The government should enforce the law instead of providing preferential treatment to a particular community. If you cannot enforce the law, step down. But do not surrender!”
“Giving free electricity in the name of schemes simply because bills are not being paid is unconstitutional,” he said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)