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Journalism of Courage
In a Karnataka government order reclassifying backward classes under various categories for reservation in education and employment, Jains (Digamabaras) and Christians remain eligible for quota. This was after the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government scrapped the four per cent quota for Muslims and placed them under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category saying religious minorities cannot be a reservation category.
The order dated March 27, released a day after Model Code of Conduct was enforced in the state, was issued following a decision by the state government in its last Cabinet meeting where it hiked reservation for dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
The hike was facilitated by removing Muslims from the 2B Backward Classes category, under which the community received four per cent reservation and pooling them under the EWS quota. Following this, reservation for Vokkaligas and other castes in the 2C category went up from four per cent to six per cent, while reservation to Lingayats and other castes increased from five per cent to seven per cent in the 2D category (for backward classes).
Christians and Jains are classified under the 2D category as per the government order.
Muslims were given 2B reservation (for moderately backward classes) in 1994 during HD Deve Gowda’s tenure as chief minister after multiple state commissions, including the O Chinnappa Reddy Commission, classified them as socially backward.
Following the Cabinet meeting on March 24, Bommai said, “There is no provision under the Constitution for reservation to religious minorities … It was struck down by the court in Andhra Pradesh. Even Dr B R Ambedkar had said that reservation was for castes.”
Congratulating the Bommai government, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Reservation granted to minorities was not constitutional. There is no provision in the Constitution to give reservation based on religion. The Congress government, due to its appeasement politics, granted reservation for minorities.”
State Backward Classes Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said there wasn’t any issue with providing reservation to the communities, maintaining that Muslims, too, are given reservation. On Bommai’s remarks that reservation cannot be offered based on religion, he said, “Even though it is Constitutionally advised not to consider communities along religious lines while giving reservation, it does not say it is wrong to do so.”
Muslims, too, get benefits under the 10 per cent EWS category, he said. “We will include them under EWS when the quantum of reservation under the category is announced in the state.”
The March 24 government order said that the reclassification of quota was based on an interim report submitted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. The interim report was submitted to the Chief Minister during the winter session of the Assembly in December. A copy of it was submitted in a sealed cover to the High Court during the hearing of a petition that challenged the government decision to shift Vokkaligas and Lingayats from Backward categories 3A and 3B to the newly formed Moderately Backward Categories 2C and 2D.
Castes and groups falling under the 2C category now include Vokkaligas and its sub-castes, Kodavas, Balijas, and Banajigas. Castes falling under 2D include Veerashaiva Lingayats and all Lingayat sub-sects, Marathas, Christians, Bunts, Jains, and Vaishnavas.
