A day after the Karnataka government, in its last cabinet meeting ahead of polls, decided to abolish the four per cent quota for ‘religious minorities’ and added it to the existing quota of two dominant communities — Panchamasali and Vokkaliga — by scrapping the 2B category of Muslims, a war of words erupted between ruling the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.
The four per cent reservation will now be divided into two equal parts and added to the existing quota for the Vokkaligas and Lingayats for whom two new reservation categories of 2C and 2D were created during the Belagavi Assembly Session last year.
The cabinet decided to bring religious minorities under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category.
While a few senior Congress leaders called the reservation process “unconstitutional" and said they will “scrap the reservation once they come to power", a few leaders from the Muslim community met their religious heads and decided to move court against the CM Basavaraj Bommai government for “betraying Muslims by moving them to the EWS", which gives 10 per cent reservation and is still sub-judice. The saffron party has refuted the allegations and called it “polarisation politics".
CONG’s CLAIMS
“Bommai called Panchamasali seer Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami and Chunchanagiri seer 25 times and threatened them to accept the newly declared reservation quota, but Panchamasalis and Vokkaligas aren’t beggars. We will scrap this reservation once we come to power in the state," said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Chief DK Shivakumar.
“Whatever the Bommai government decided in the cabinet meeting is unfair and unconstitutional, thus we chaired a meeting with our religious heads and have decided to move court in the matter. We will not sit quiet," said Congress Working President Saleem Ahmed.
BJP’s STANCE
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during the public rally in Bidar, also said that the reservation provided to the minority wasn’t as per the Constitution.
“Reservation provided to the minority was not as per the Constitution. There is no provision in the Constitution to provide reservation on the basis of religion. The Congress government, due to its polarisation politics, provided reservation to the minority. The BJP scrapped that reservation and provided reservations to Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities," said Shah.
Bommai said, “KPCC President has said that I called seers 25 times and pressured them to accept the reservation. I want to tell him that I don’t have to do all that. In fact, the seers were pressured by the opposition to not accept the reservation. This is a gimmick by them. I promise and say that I didn’t call them."
Meanwhile, BJP’s senior leader and Minister of Animal Husbandry Prabhu B Chavan also wrote to Law Minister Madhu Swamy, requesting to review the Sadashiva commission report and Nag Mohandas committee report regarding the internal reservation to grant reservation in a scientific manner.
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