The Aalmi Jamiyatul Mashaiq, a representative body of religious heads, on Sunday demanded that the Hyderabad City Police impose a ban on the speeches of VHP leader Praveen Togadia.
In a statement, AJM chief advisor Moulana Syed Shah Mazhar Hussaini alleged that despite the prevailing volatile situation due to recent communal clashes in the Old City, Praveen Togadia was being allowed to make provocative speeches in different parts of the city. Referring to one such speech, he said that Togadia objected to the reservation being given to Muslims and tried to instigate SCs and STs by falsely claiming Muslims were being reservation benefits from their quota.
Mazhar Hussaini said that the Muslim community was being reservation not on the religious lines, but due to their poor economic conditions. However, he said the SCs and STs too were given reservation benefits purely on religious grounds. He said that a person belonging to other religions could not get reservation or other benefits that a SC or ST enjoys.
He also defended the Haj subsidy and other benefits that the minorities enjoy and said that Togadia was mistaken that those sops were being given to the Muslims from the taxes collected from the majority community. He said Muslims too were paying the taxes regularly and thousands of Muslim NRIs were contributing to the foreign exchange that the country earns.
Demanding that the City Police impose a ban on the Praveen Togadia’s speeches, Mazhar Hussaini said that provocative speeches with distorted facts would only affect the communal harmony in the city.
–Agencies