New Delhi: The Telangana government’s Tuesday decision to allow its Muslim employees to leave work an hour early, at 4 pm, to break their fast and attend special Ramzan prayers has prompted the Opposition, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, to argue that the government is showing religious favouritism.
The state has maintained that it is not a communal move.
Not only Telangana, but the Chandrababu Naidu-led government in Andhra Pradesh has also extended this work flexibility to Muslim employees across state departments, including village and ward secretariats, allowing them to finish work by 4 pm. But in AP, the government order issued last week by Minister of Minority Welfare N.M.D. Farooq has gone largely unnoticed and not drawn similar criticism.
Speaking to ThePrint, Farooq said that he even requested a special iftar party in Andhra Pradesh’s jails for prisoners during Ramzan. But neither the BJP nor the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party, known for vocally supporting Hinduism, has raised objections so far.
The Telangana government order issued late on 17 February by the General Administration Department (GAD) under Chief Minister Revanth Reddy allows full-time and contractual Muslim employees across all government departments, including boards, corporations, and public sector undertakings, to leave offices or schools at 4 pm during Ramzan, from 19 February to 20 March. However, employees must report back and work beyond 4 pm in case of exigencies, according to the memo signed by Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao.
After it was issued, the Opposition—which has previously accused the Telangana CM of “Muslim appeasement”—came down heavily on the GAD decision.
However, Telangana Congress minority cell spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, speaking to ThePrint, said, “Why doesn’t the BJP criticise this move in Andhra Pradesh, where they are part of the government with the Telugu Desam? We will not have a problem if such a relaxation is given to the Hindus during Dussehra or Shivaratri.”
Following the Telangana government order, the director of school education officially revised the school timings during Ramzan. All Urdu-medium government and aided schools, as well as Urdu-medium sections within parallel-medium schools and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) colleges, will now conduct classes between 8 am and 1.30 pm. Schools can compensate for the learning loss with additional hour-long classes during the remaining academic term.
The Bharatiya Janata Party units in Hyderabad and other districts have called the memo “minority appeasement to the core”.
Calling the order “unconstitutional”, BJP Mahila Morcha National Executive Member Padma Veerapaneni said the labour laws of the state or the Centre do not have such rules.
“Are they God’s special children that this special relaxation is being allowed? Why is this not allowed during the Sabarimala yatra [running from mid-November to mid-January] when Hindus keep a vow for 40 days? For all their fight to protect the Constitution and carrying the ‘Red Book’ all over the country, this is a case of clear discrimination. It is against the basic principles of equality—at the workplace—where people drawing the same pay are being treated differently,” she said.
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‘Anti-secularist’
Going back in time, the Ramzan month relief was also there under the previous K. Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi government. Then-Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar’s memo also allowed Telangana’s Muslim employees to leave government or school work by 4 pm.
The KCR government also allowed extended vacations during Sankranti and Dussehra, as well as the Samakka–Sarakka tribal pilgrimage, which it declared a state festival, creating a tradition that continues under the Revanth Reddy-led government.
According to the Opposition, it has also denounced the Congress government’s move because Christians, who observe a 40-day fast during Lent—after Easter—were yet to be given any special allowance or leave since Revanth Reddy’s government came to power.
Palvai Harish Babu, the BJP MLA from Sirpur in Asifabad district, northern Telangana, called the state’s move at the start of Ramzan month “anti-secularist.” He bolstered his argument by recalling Revanth Reddy’s campaign during last year’s Jubilee Hills bypolls.
Revanth Reddy, at the time, defending the appointment of former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin as a minister in his Cabinet, said, “By making him a minister, we gave him the minority share… Muslims mean Congress, and Congress means Muslims. Today, the strength of the Congress—the strength of the Telangana government—is their Muslim brothers and sisters. The two eyes of the Telangana government, Muslims and Hindus, we have never seen any difference between the two…”
Stressing that the comment showed the government’s intentions to appease just one community, Palvai Harish Babu said, “If the government has already issued formal orders to all departmental heads and district collectors, directing them to implement the guidelines uniformly, it shows that this has been carried out with deliberate intent.”
The orders were issued by both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments after the authorised moon-sighting committees in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) announced the official commencement of Ramzan on Wednesday after the sighting of the crescent moon. According to Islamic scholars in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the 40-day festival will be observed starting 19 February.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)