Telangana quota hike for Muslims will create social tensions: BJP

New Delhi/Hyderabad: A day after the Telangana legislature passed a bill hiking the quota for backward Muslims from four to 12 per cent, the BJP said the move would create social tensions and called it a "black day".

BJP National General Secretary Muralidhar Rao said that the step is "against fundamental principles of democracy and unity of the nation". 

"The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government in Telangana under Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has hiked reservations for Muslims in the state from four per cent to 12 per cent in an unconstitutional manner," he said in a statement, adding that the state government has not "followed any scientific method in deriving the figure of 12 per cent given in the Bill". 

"The decision defies the laiddown principles of affirmative action on reservation of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) based on social and economic factors. Muslims in Telangana have never faced social discrimination or economic deprivation," he added.

He accused the TRS of following in the Congress footsteps of playing "divisive, vote bank politics" and warned the TRS of meeting the same fate "as met by Congress at Centre and many states".