The commission, set up by the government, has recommended 10 percent reservation for Muslims and five percent for other minorities.

Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen, which has one seat in the Indian Parliament and seven in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, plans to launch a national movement to mobilize Muslim support for the issue.

Akbaruddin Owaisi, a key leader of the Majlis and a legislator, said his party was trying to bring all the Muslim organizations on one platform for the cause.

The state assembly in southern Andhra Pradesh had passed a bill earmarking quota for Muslims in government jobs. The move was later challenged in court. Currently, the case is in the Supreme Court and Owaisi is hopeful of a favorable judgment.

“Justice Ranganath Mishra is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court. He must have studied all the aspects, including legal ones, before making his recommendations,” Owaisi told a meeting organized in his honor on Monday by Bazm-e-Ittehad Jeddah, an association of mainly Hyderabadi Muslims.

He said while he had full faith in the judiciary, he would also like to ratchet up pressure on the government through public support.

Besides other benefits, the reservation of jobs for Muslims would increase their representation in the bureaucracy, which, he said, was necessary. “Even if we get a bill passed in the Parliament, biased bureaucrats block or delay its implementation on silly pretexts. With a Muslim officer holding a position at the bureaucracy, we would have some leverage.”

Owaisi stressed the need for education among Muslims saying it was crucial to the survival of the community in India. He urged Muslims living in the Gulf countries to sponsor “bridge schools” in Hyderabad. He said 40 such schools were already functioning in the city where Muslim children between three and five years of age are prepared for admission to government schools. “Poor Muslim parents need to be motivated in whatever way possible to send their children to schools,” he said.

Majlis represents mainly the Muslims of Hyderabad, a former Muslim princely state and currently the capital of Andhra Pradesh. Owaisi strongly opposed the ongoing movement for the division of the southern state. He said the new state of Telangana, which would also cover Hyderabad, was not in the interest of Muslims.

“Muslims have always suffered whenever there was a partition including the one at the time of independence in 1947,” he said.

Owaisi also commented on the recent riots in Hyderabad saying it had been orchestrated by certain Hindu nationalist organizations.