The Karnataka state government has lifted the 4% reservation given to Muslims because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not believe in the policy of reconciliation, Union Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday, saying that the quota was constitutionally invalid.
The Karnataka government has scrapped the 4% reserve given to Muslims because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not believe in the policy of reconciliation, Union Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday, saying the quota was enshrined in the constitution. invalid.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the unveiling of statues of 12th-century social reformer Basaveshwara and Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda outside Vidhanasoudha in Bengaluru on Sunday. (PTI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the unveiling of the 12th statue of reformer Basaveshwara and Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda outside Vidhanasoudha in Bengaluru on Sunday. (PTI)
Karnataka on Friday increased reservations for Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities but scrapped separate Muslim quota in a politically significant move. Before high-stakes legislative elections.
Shah said the previous Congress-led government had reservations about the Muslim community for political purposes. “Reservations for minorities are constitutionally invalid. There is no provision in the constitution to grant reservations based on religion,” he said at two rallies held in the village of Gorata in the district of Bidar and Gabbur in Raichur district.
In Friday’s decision, the 4% reserved for Muslims under the OBC quota was abolished and divided equally between the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
The Lingayats, who make up 17% of the state, and the Vokkaligas, who make up 15%, are two of the strongest communities in Karnataka and their support is crucial across swathes of the constituency.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to retain power by fending off challenges from Congress and the (secular) Janata Dal.
“The BJP does not believe in appeasement, so they decided to change the reservation,” Shah said.
The state government led by HD Deve Gowda set the state’s Muslim retention rate at 4% in 1994 and passed an ordinance to that effect in 1995.
State splits OBC into four categories – 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B – based on economic, social and educational status.
These communities are given priority retention in jobs and educational institutions based on category. Category 2A includes the worst offenders, followed by 2B, 3A and 3B.
The retention rate for Vokkaligas has increased from 4% to 6% and for Lingayats to 7% from 5%, according to the cabinet decision on Friday.
The
EWS category currently includes Brahmins, Jains, Aryavaishyas, Nagarthas and Modaliars who make up about 4% of the state’s population. Now, the Muslim community, which makes up about 13% of the state’s population, will join this group.
However, only people from households with a gross annual income of less than Rs 8 lakh, agricultural land of fewe than 5 acres and houses of less than 1,000 square feet are eligible to book.
Speaking at a public rally in the village of Gorata after the unveiling of the Gorata Martyrs’ Memorial and the statue of the country’s prime interior minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Shah also accused the Congress of not remembering those who fought and died to liberate Hyderabad. ” rule of the Nizam.
Shah also flew the 103ft tricolor in Gorata, known as “Jallianwala Bagh of South India”.
“More than 200 people were massacred by the brutal Nizam in Gorata, but because of its appeasement, Congress never remembers those who fought and sacrificed their lives to liberate Hyderabad just because of its greed for vote banks,” he added.
Tribute to Sardar Patel who said Hyderabad would not be liberated without Patel.
Noting that the BJP never believed in “alienation”, Shah said the BJP government led by BS Yediyurappa had renamed the former Hyderabad-Karnataka region to Kalyana Karnataka.
“Because the Nizam of Hyderabad ruled the area, it was called the Hyderabad-Karnataka area. It was Congress that allowed the symbol of Indian slavery to continue here, but Yediyurappa allowed it renamed Kalyana Karnataka,” he said.
Congress retaliated by saying it would restore Muslim reservations if elected to office.
State Assembly Speaker DK Shivakumar has declared “unconstitutional” the Karnataka government’s decision to include Muslims in the 10% EWS, saying “it is the right of minorities “.
“They (the government) think reservations can be distributed like property. It’s not property. It’s a minority right,” he said.
“We don’t want 4% of them to be scrapped and distributed to a large community. They (members of minority communities) are our brothers and relatives.
All Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats rejected the offer,” Shivakumar said.
“We’re going to give it all up,” he said. designed to provide equal protection without discrimination of caste, religion or gender. This is stipulated in Article 14 of
the Constitution.
Articles 15 and 16 provide for reservations regarding education and employment. Its purpose is to give special privileges to those who are denied opportunities and bring them into the mainstream. It is only by integrating the social and educational laggards that we can evolve toward an egalitarian society. This is clearly stated in the constitution,” Siddaramaiah told a press conference at the KPCC office in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, Muslim community leaders have said they will challenge the decision in court.
