After scrapping the four per cent quota for Muslims in Karnataka, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was voted to power, it would abolish reservation for Muslims in Telangana which he dubbed ‘unconstitutional’.
Shah took a break from campaigning in Karnataka, and was addressing a public meeting at Chevella parliamentary constituency near Hyderabad.
Speaking at the event, Shah reiterated that the saffron party will double its efforts to ensure rights of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and OBCs, along with doing away with religion-based reservations for Muslims.
“Religion-based quota is a violation of the Constitution. The reservation belongs to the SC, ST and OBCs,” Shah said.
Further, Shah launched an attack on the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in the state, saying that the wheel of their car, which is also the party’s symbol, is in the hands of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Referring to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s national ambitions, he said: “KCR is dreaming of occupying the PM’s chair, but Narendra Modi is going to be the PM in 2024.”
Political reactions on Shah’s comments
Shah’s statements have drawn sharp reactions from the ruling BRS, AIMIM and the Congress.
Taking to Twitter, AIMIM Chief Owaisi said, “Besides anti-Muslim hate speech, BJP has no vision for Telangana. All they can offer is fake encounters, surgical strikes on Hyderabad, curfews, releasing criminals and bulldozers. Why do you hate people of Telangana so much……If Shah is serious about justice for SCs, STs and OBCs, then he should introduce a constitutional amendment to remove 50% quota ceiling
Furthermore, AIMIM Leader Hasan Jafri, speaking to News18 said that “BJP only wants to resort to communal and divisive politics because they have nothing else to offer.”
“Muslims in India are being targeted, and harassed repeatedly. The 4% reservation for Muslims is for the most backward members of the community. Quota is not for all Muslims. If they hate Muslims so much, then why does Modi have ties with Muslim-dominated countries like Saudi Arabia. With this statement, the BJP has once again exposed itself,” Jafri said.
Hitting out sharply at Shah, Telangana Congress Leader Shabbir Ali said the BJP has ‘zero’ idea about the Muslim quota in the state
“Sadly this country is being ruled by uneducated leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. They are completely unaware of the fact that this reservation is not in the name of religion, it is on the basis of socially educationally backward classes of the muslims in educational institutions and public enterprises. I condemn the Home Minister’s statements,” Ali said.
What is the existing quota system for Muslims?
The Muslim quota issue has been a long-standing debate in the state. Muslims have 4 percent reservation in educational institutions and jobs currently, and according to the 2011 census, Telangana has 12.7% Muslim population.
In 2017, the KCR government passed a Bill in the Assembly increasing the quota to 12 percent.
The decision was taken on the basis of the findings of the G Sudhir commission on the socio-economic and educational conditions of Muslims in the state.
The report had stated: “The share of Muslims in administrative state services like IAS, IPS and IFS is negligible. The share of Muslim employees in the state is only about two-thirds (7.36% of the total employees while the share of Muslims in total population in the state in 12.68%) of its share in total population and as such can be said that Muslim in the state suffer from underrepresentation in Government services.”
It further said, “It has also been found that under-representation of Muslims is acute in Departments where there are large numbers of employees or the departments which are strategic in nature.”
Based on their findings, the panel had recommended 9-12 percent reservations for Muslims in social and educational sectors. Accordingly, the KCR government passed a Bill in 2017. However, it did not get the assent of the central government on the grounds that not only the reservation was religion based, it also exceed the limit of 50 percent reservations set for every state.
Muslim quota and polls
Both AIMIM Leader Jafri and Congress’s Shabbir Ali argued that the existing quota is not applicable to forward classes within Muslims and that benefits are only extended to the most socially and educationally backward classes of Muslims in social and educational sectors.
This essentially means, quota is applicable for butchers, dhobis, barbers among others
For the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the muslim quota issue is likely to remain a key electoral promise. A BRS leader who didn’t want to be named told News18 that the party is firm on its stand of giving 12% quota to Muslims
“BJP’s political discourse is just restricted to charging us with appeasement politics but we have ensured equal representation for SCs, STs, OBCs. No other state has such a wide-ranging welfare scheme for each of these communities. They talk about uplifting pasmanda muslims, but persecute others within the same community. We will stand for all,” the leader quoted above who also argued that states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala also have quotas for Muslims targeted at their holistic development.
In March this year, the BJP government in Karnataka scrapped the 4 percent quota for Muslims and distributed it among Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
This is not the first time that Shah has made this poll promise. In May last year, while addressing a gathering at Tukkuguda, had said that the party would abolish all religion-based reservations. Later, the promise was reiterated by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who had added that madrassas would be shut down and the official status given to Urdu would be repealed.
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