Minorities hiring in armed forces very low, says Asaduddin Owaisi

HYDERABAD: All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi accused the government of neglecting minorities when it came to recruitment into the armed forces and paramilitary forces of the country. Interacting with reporters on Tuesday, he said that the percentage of Muslims in the paramilitary forces in the country is low. He said despite the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme expressly stating that all efforts would be made to increase the share of the minorities in Central government jobs, little was done about it. Mr Owaisi had said much the same thing at a public meeting on Monday night, and had been questioned by some groups on his linking of recruitment into paramilitary forces with religion.

Mr Owaisi defended his statement and said, “Those people are totally ignorant, arrogant, and they do not read. I want to ask them: isn’t this issue related to the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme? Point number 10 of the 15-point programme clearly states about the recruitment to state and Central services for Muslim communities.” He asked, “Is is not true that the department of personnel on January 8, 2007 issued an official memorandum wherein they said, if there is a vacancy of 10 being filled, there should be a representative of minority and SC?”

Mr Owaisi further said that in a recent interview, minister for minority affairs, Muqtar Abbas Naqvi had wrongly claimed that the percentage of minorities in government jobs had increased.  “I had exposed the wrong claims of the government,” he said.  “The Prime Minister talks about giving computers and Qurans in the hands of Muslims. Show me what has been done. There are no jobs. Nothing is visible on the Internet. One of my brothers tells me that Muslims in the CISF are 3.7 per cent. In CRPF, they are just 5.5 per cent, in Rapid Action Force, who in their fancy uniforms will be the first ones to beat us, Muslims are just 6.9 per cent. I challenge the NDA government to release the data of recruitment in all central government organisations,” he said.

He also said the government should release data of recruitment to banks, the railways and other PSUs to reveal how many minorities have been recruited. “The BJP is not doing justice to minorities. I have all the right to question the government,” Mr Owaisi said.