Civil rights activist and general secretary of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Lateef Mohammed Khan, who has been fighting for the rights of the Muslim community, was suspended by the School Education Department last week for criticising Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao through a video.
Lateef, who works as a headmaster at the Government High School near Gandhi Bhavan in Nampally, listed out the unfulfilled promises made by the CM in 2014 before coming to power.
Lateef is an activist who has been working for the justice of Mecca Masjid bomb blast victims.
In November 2018, during the Telangana Assembly election, Lateef published a 15-minute video on YouTube titled ‘KCR exposed’, which he also shared on Facebook, where he listed out the unfulfilled promises of KCR, including his claims of making a Dalit the Chief Minister, giving 12% reservation to Muslims in employment and education, providing double bedroom houses to the poor, clean drinking water for each household, construction of dams for irrigation, free education from KG-PG and employment opportunities for 50,000 students.
“KCR made many such promises but never fulfilled them. During the Telangana movement and 2014 elections, he said that he will create a ‘golden Telangana’, but he failed to live up to it. Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee appeals you all to ask about these promises when TRS people come to seek your votes,” Lateef says in the video.
“I appeal you not to fall for their promises, but question them and teach them a lesson,” Lateef adds.
This video landed Lateef in trouble, who was suspended on grounds of violating the Model Code of Conduct on May 15.
Speaking to TNM, Lateef said the action taken against him was arbitrary. “I have been working as an activist for nearly two decades. I have questioned several CM’s and PM’s in my 20 years as an activist. However, no one took such action against me.”
He said that he was speaking in the video in his capacity as an individual with the right to question the government.
“This is a fascist government, which has been suppressing democratic voices critical of the government. Because I pointed out the false promises, he is taking revenge against me, ” Lateef bemoaned, and added, “The department is not revealing who filed the complaint against me, or giving me the complaint copy.”
Lateef said that he will challenge the decision of the department in the High Court.
“I fought for the statehood along the sides of Prof Jayashankar (Telangana idealogue) by forming Muslim Forum for Telangana, and today I am being punished for questioning the Telangana government. I will fight them in court, but before that, I want to present my case before the people’s court,” he said.