Two days after the Calcutta High Court struck down the inclusion of 77 classes (mostly belonging to the Muslim community) in the OBC category in West Bengal, the BJP-led-Rajasthan government is mulling to review the OBC reservation granted to Muslims in the State.
While speaking about the matter on Friday (24th May), Rajasthan’s Cabinet Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Avinash Gehlot informed, “As part of its appeasement politics, Congress gave reservation to 14 Muslims castes under OBC category between 1997 and 2013.”
“We have all those circulars, and in due time, the department and the government will review it,” he emphasised. Gehlot added that providing reservation to any class based on religion is against Constitutional principles.
He said, “We have received lots of complaints about it. The department is verifying the complaints.”
The Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment also informed that a high-level committee would be formed after elections to review the OBC reservation granted to 14 Muslim classes in Rajasthan.
PM Modi hit out at Congress over Muslim reservation
It must be mentioned that Rajasthan has 21% reservation for Other Backward Classes in government jobs. In April this year, PM Modi hit out at the Opposition Congress party for reducing quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs and granting reservations to Muslims during an election rally in Tonk-Sawai Madhopur Lok Sabha constituency.
“I want to ask Congress, will it announce that it won’t reduce the reservation for Dalits, tribals and the backward and distribute it to Muslims? Promise this to the nation,” he had added.
The Calcutta High Court verdict on Muslim OBC reservation
In a landmark judgment on Wednesday (22nd May), the Calcutta High Court cancelled Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates issued to 77 groups by the Left and Trinamool Congress governments between 5th March 2010 and 11th May 2012.
The development came as a shocker for the incumbent government ahead of the upcoming 6th phase of Lok Sabha elections in the State.
The West Bengal government, run by the Left and TMC, came under scanner for its “unconstitutional” categorisation of classes solely based on religion, as laid down by the Supreme Court in the landmark Indra Sawhney case of 1992 (wherein the Judiciary upheld the validity of 27% OBC reservation).
The Calcutta High Court also noted that the West Bengal government committed “fraud on the Constitutional power of the State” by enacting the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 and excluding the role of Commission in the identification of new OBCs.
“The Commission’s reports are not in accordance with the Constitutional value of the impartial and secular reservation. Although the reports of the Commission are prepared to show that it has not made a religion-specific reservation, it appears otherwise to this Court,” the Judges noted.
The Calcutta High Court also came down heavily on the West Bengal government for treatment of Muslims as a ‘political commodity’ and exploiting them for electoral gains.
It is interesting to note that while most classes belonging to the Muslim community were included in the OBC category under the Left regime, it was the Mamata Banerjee-led-TMC government that issued the most number of OBC certificates to Mulims after coming to power in 2011.
