On Friday, March 24, the BJP government in Karnataka abolished the current 4% reservation (2B category) for Muslims under the OBC quota and transferred them to the 10% pool for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and increased the quota for Lingayats and Vokkaligas by 2% each. This move however, did not go well with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani who has called it a “grave injustice meted out to Muslims” adding that his organization will be challenging this in the court.
In a statement issued by the Jamiat on Saturday, Maulana Madani claimed that the recent move by the Karnataka government is not in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertions of the upliftment of Pasmanda Muslims. He also asserted that scraping OBC Muslim reservations as “harmful to the comprehensive development of the country.”
“It does not fit in in PM Modi’s Pasmanda Muslim upliftment as on one hand, as on one the Prime Minister of the country is promoting development policy for the backward Muslims, on the other, his government is snatching away the reservation from them in Karnataka and distributing it among other classes,” the statement read.
Moreover, the controversial Maulana argued that various official reports and statistics ‘confirm’ that Indian Muslims are at the lowest rung of development educationally and economically.
According to the Jamiat Maulana, if measured in terms of backwardness “no community deserves reservations more than Muslims.” He also asserted that while the Bhartiya Janata Party claims that religious grounds cannot be considered while giving reservations, it never considers the backwardness of Muslims, outlining that ‘only’ 12 backward Muslim communities are covered under the now-scrapped 4 percent OBC Muslim reservations.
Accusing the BJP of ‘electoral opportunism’ Maulana Madani claimed that scrapping the Muslim reservation and extending it to the Vokkaligas and Lingayats will create communal discord adding that the Jamiat will move court against the BJP government’s decision.
“How to Fit in PM Modi’s Pasmanda Muslim upliftment with Karnataka Govt cancellation of 4 percent reservation for backward Muslims?” Maulana Madani tweeted.
How to Fit in PM Modi’s Pasmanda Muslim upliftment with Karnataka Govt cancellation of 4 percent reservation for backward Muslims ?
— Mahmood A Madani (@mahmoodAmadani) March 25, 2023
It is notable that a significant segment of the Lingayat population known as the Panchamasali Lingayat had been pushing for a change in the reservation category from 3B (5%) to 2A (15%). The Vokkaliga community, which was granted 4% of the OBC list’s 3A category’s reservations, made an identical demand. Accordingly, on March 24, the Bommai administration added two more categories to the OBC list- 2A for Vokkaligas and 2D for Lingayats, boosting the overall quota to 6% and 7%, respectively.
