Minorities to vote in favour of Congress, says Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has received over 300 suggestions from leading Muslim and Christian socio-religious organisations for its proposed Minorities Declaration, said TPCC Political Affairs Committee (PAC) convener and Minorities Declaration Committee chairman Mohammed Ali Shabbir.

Shabbir Ali, along with TPCC senior vice president and committee's convener Zafar Javeed, held a meeting on Tuesday to review the progress on the preparation of the draft Minorities Declaration. He informed that so far, more than 12 prominent Muslim, Christian and other organisations have submitted their charter of demands to the TPCC's committee.

He said that so far, Muslim organisations have submitted a total of 89 demands, Christian organisations have submitted over 30 main demands, and three leading Shia Muslim organizations have submitted about 40 demands. The Committee members have also submitted over 400 suggestions on what should be done for the welfare of minorities after the Congress wins the next elections. He said that the process of receiving and compiling suggestions is ongoing.

The demands have been categorised into economic empowerment of minorities, education, women empowerment, religious infrastructure and honorarium, housing, Old City development, protection of Wakf properties, promotion of Urdu language, cultural and religious institutions, etc.

Shabbir Ali said that the Minorities Declaration of the Congress would be a comprehensive and would prove to be a vision document which would ensure safety, growth and prosperity of all minorities including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, etc., "All the promises which would be made in the Declaration will be practical and they will be implemented 100 per cent," he said.

He said that the overwhelming response to the draft of the Minorities Declaration clearly shows that minorities in Telangana feel betrayed by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government and want to throw it out in the next Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, Javeed informed that an interactive meeting with the representatives of minority organisations and NGOs would be held in the third week of September in Hyderabad after the conclusion of Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Hyderabad. He said all the Committee members have been actively interacting with various organisations and individuals to gather their support in favour of the Congress in the next Assembly elections.