Breaking the political consensus on the Constitution amendment bill to provide reservations for SC/ST and OBCs in unaided private educational institutions, the BJP today declared that it would not support the bill if minority institutions were exempt from the provision. BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley said the party had offered support to the bill—aimed at overturning the August 12 Supreme Court order declaring quotas in unaided colleges ‘‘unconstitutional’’—in its earlier meeting with government representatives. BJP leaders took pains to emphasise that the party was not against the bill per se but wanted quotas to be extended to all unaided colleges. “We want the bill but this provision (quotas in minority institutions) has to be there,’’ Swaraj said. Since the proposed legislation is a constitution amendment bill, it requires to be passed with a two-thirds majority. In other words, the government will be unable to get the Bill through if the BJP does not cooperate. The BJP’s backtracking on the bill today took political circles by surprise since the government had made it clear on December 8 itself that the proposed amendment had “overwhelming political consensus” and would not include minority institutions since they already enjoy special status under the Constitution. ‘‘According to me, exempting minority institutions from the purview of the bill is an anti-Dalit, anti-OBC move,’’ Jaitley said, pointing out that the exemption would encourage more institutions to seek minority status in order to avoid providing reservations. Minority institutions, he said, included institutions run by both religious and linguistic minorities. Thus, a Kerala-run institute in Karnataka or an Assamese college in Arunachal were also minority institutes. Also, many private medical and engineering colleges in the country enjoyed minority status. None of these would provide quotas for SC/ST and OBCs—thus harming their interests.
