New Delhi: The Telangana authorities’s Tuesday determination to permit its Muslim staff to go away work an hour early, at 4 pm, to interrupt their quick and attend particular Ramzan prayers has prompted the Opposition, together with the Bharatiya Janata Get together, to argue that the federal government is displaying non secular favouritism.

The state has maintained that it isn’t a communal transfer.

Chatting with ThePrint, Farooq stated that he even requested a particular iftar social gathering in Andhra Pradesh’s jails for prisoners throughout Ramzan. However neither the BJP nor the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Get together, identified for vocally supporting Hinduism, has raised objections thus far.

The Telangana authorities order issued late on 17 February by the Common Administration Division (GAD) underneath Chief Minister Revanth Reddy permits full-time and contractual Muslim staff throughout all authorities departments, together with boards, companies, and public sector undertakings, to go away places of work or faculties at 4 pm throughout Ramzan, from 19 February to twenty March. Nevertheless, staff should report again and work past 4 pm in case of exigencies, in line with the memo signed by Chief Secretary Ok. Ramakrishna Rao.

After it was issued, the Opposition—which has beforehand accused the Telangana CM of “Muslim appeasement”—got here down closely on the GAD determination.

Nevertheless, Telangana Congress minority cell spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, chatting with ThePrint, stated, “Why doesn’t the BJP criticise this transfer in Andhra Pradesh, the place they’re a part of the federal government with the Telugu Desam? We is not going to have an issue if such a leisure is given to the Hindus throughout Dussehra or Shivaratri.”

Following the Telangana authorities order, the director of college training formally revised the varsity timings throughout Ramzan. All Urdu-medium authorities and aided faculties, in addition to Urdu-medium sections inside parallel-medium faculties and District Institutes of Training and Coaching (DIET) faculties, will now conduct lessons between 8 am and 1.30 pm. Faculties can compensate for the training loss with further hour-long lessons throughout the remaining educational time period.

The Bharatiya Janata Get together items in Hyderabad and different districts have known as the memo “minority appeasement to the core”.

Calling the order “unconstitutional”, BJP Mahila Morcha Nationwide Government Member Padma Veerapaneni stated the labour legal guidelines of the state or the Centre would not have such guidelines.

“Are they God’s particular youngsters that this particular leisure is being allowed? Why is that this not allowed throughout the Sabarimala yatra [running from mid-November to mid-January] when Hindus hold a vow for 40 days? For all their struggle to guard the Structure and carrying the ‘Purple Guide’ everywhere in the nation, this can be a case of clear discrimination. It’s in opposition to the essential ideas of equality—on the office—the place individuals drawing the identical pay are being handled in another way,” she stated.

---

Additionally Learn: A Hyderabad in each area—how Andhra shook off bifurcation blues & grew to become an industrial powerhouse

---

‘Anti-secularist’

Going again in time, the Ramzan month aid was additionally there underneath the earlier Ok. Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi authorities. Then-Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar’s memo additionally allowed Telangana’s Muslim staff to go away authorities or faculty work by 4 pm.

The KCR authorities additionally allowed prolonged holidays throughout Sankranti and Dussehra, in addition to the Samakka–Sarakka tribal pilgrimage, which it declared a state pageant, creating a convention that continues underneath the Revanth Reddy-led authorities.

Based on the Opposition, it has additionally denounced the Congress authorities’s transfer as a result of Christians, who observe a 40-day quick throughout Lent—after Easter—had been but to be given any particular allowance or depart since Revanth Reddy’s authorities got here to energy.

Palvai Harish Babu, the BJP MLA from Sirpur in Asifabad district, northern Telangana, known as the state’s transfer at first of Ramzan month “anti-secularist.” He bolstered his argument by recalling Revanth Reddy’s marketing campaign throughout final 12 months’s Jubilee Hills bypolls.

Revanth Reddy, on the time, defending the appointment of former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin as a minister in his Cupboard, stated, “By making him a minister, we gave him the minority share… Muslims imply Congress, and Congress means Muslims. At the moment, the energy of the Congress—the energy of the Telangana authorities—is their Muslim brothers and sisters. The 2 eyes of the Telangana authorities, Muslims and Hindus, we have now by no means seen any distinction between the 2…”

Stressing that the remark confirmed the federal government’s intentions to appease only one neighborhood, Palvai Harish Babu stated, “If the federal government has already issued formal orders to all departmental heads and district collectors, directing them to implement the rules uniformly, it exhibits that this has been carried out with deliberate intent.”

The orders had been issued by each the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments after the authorised moon-sighting committees within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) introduced the official graduation of Ramzan on Wednesday after the sighting of the crescent moon. Based on Islamic students in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the 40-day pageant might be noticed beginning 19 February.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

---

Additionally Learn: Davos in January, Hyderabad in July: Why Telangana CM Revanth is pitching for a mid-year WEF follow-up

---