How Laxman's 'daughter-in-law' of Pakistan comment shifted focus from the real story

As we express outrage over the injustice done to Sania Mirza, KCR is having the last laugh. His divisive policies donâ€™t make news.

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Dhanya Rajendran| The News Minute| July 24, 2014| 4.30 pm IST (Analysis) Telangana BJP leader K Laxman is now quite infamous. He is the politician who questioned Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Raoâ€™s decision to make Sania Mirza the brand ambassador of the state. His statement calling Sania Mirza a daughter-in-law of Pakistan has caused a furore. What K Laxman said about Sania Mirza and her Pakistani connection is downright dumb, but in the rush to condemn or endorse him, everyone seems to have forgotten the actual issue - the divisive politics that KCR continues to play in Telangana. Laxmanâ€™s press meet was on four or five issues; Sania Mirza was the example he used to drive his point home. He definitely needs lessons in what not to say, but itâ€™s now spiraled into a conversation about Sonia Gandhi being Italian bahu and Sania disrespecting the Indian flag. Laxman like many other leaders in Telangana have been raising crucial issues over the last few days, but sadly that never got any proper national coverage. KCR and his cabinet last week introduced a nativity clause, a new cut-off in the state. Only students whose families were natives of Telangana prior to 1956 will be eligible to avail fee reimbursement and scholarships for professional courses from this year. What does this mean? Poor students, more than 40,000 of them, will not receive fee reimbursement and scholarships, only because their parents or grandparents were not from Telangana. It doesnâ€™t matter if their parents were born in Telangana post 1956. Let me simplify it further. If you are living in Mumbai, Delhi or Jaipur, your state gets split tomorrow and a KCR like policy is put into place there- you may not get your fee concession as your father/ grandfather was not from the state. KCR has a justification for this- 1956 was the year when the Hyderabad state was merged with Andhra to form Andhra Pradesh, so 1956 it will be for the cut-off. Laxman told The News Minute, â€œKCRâ€™s move is against the AP Reorganization Act and unconstitutional. My question was when students are getting deprived of their fees and scholarships, when the nativity clause applies to them, why should Sania Mirza be given an exception?â€ But did he make a wrong move by objecting Sania Mirza on the basis of who she was married to. â€œI did mention that,â€ says Laxman, no apology forthcoming. Thanks to KCR and the 1956 cut-off, Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) counseling for universities and colleges in the state has been postponed. The Telangana government NOW claims this is applicable only for fee concessions and scholarships, but what if KCR tries to extend the same nativity clause for employment, even domicile status after a few months? This is what other groups and political parties have been protesting about; this is what Laxmanâ€™s press meet was primarily about. The second controversy is regarding the Telangana governmentâ€™s decision to constitute a commission headed by a retired judge of the high court to consider increasing the quota for Muslims from existing four percent to 12 percent. Muslims constitute 12.43 percent of Telanganaâ€™s 35 million population and this is a clear measure to woo the Muslim community ahead of the municipal polls in the state scheduled later this year. KCRâ€™s move comes despite the fact that AP High Court struck down five percent reservation announced for Muslims in the united Andhra Pradesh in 2012. Before this, KCR issued daily threats demanding that all Seemandhra employees working in the state secretariat would have to go back to AP. The secretariat is located in Hyderabad, which is now located within Telangana. When the state of Andhra Pradesh was first formed, on the basis of a Gentlemanâ€™s Agreement, the employees of the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat were taken in a Seemandhra and Telangana ratio of 52:48. There are 1865 officer level employees working in the Telangana State Secretariat, of which, 1060 hail from Seemandhra and 805 from Telangana. There are as many as 4,479 posts in the Secretariat (including officers and non-officer level people) of which only 3,038 positions have been filled. Out of this 3038, 1,771 are from the Seemandhra region. It is this 1,771 people that KCR was targeting; many of them have chosen to go back to AP. Our societyâ€™s curse really is politicians who divide us. Then there are those like Laxman who want to make a point, but always make the wrong point. What has made the issue worse are byte-happy politicians like Congressâ€™ Hanumantha Rao who have furthered the â€˜daughter-in-lawâ€™ of Pakistan angle. As we express outrage over the injustice done to Sania Mirza, KCR is having the last laugh. His divisive policies donâ€™t make news.

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