While the Congress party ran the entire election campaign accusing the BJP of trying to change the constitution, it itself has been demanding changes to the constitution. On 30 June, the party once again called to change the constitution to lift the 50% limit on the quota of Schedules Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. Rahul Gandhi’s close confidant and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh stated that his party has been raising the demand regularly during the Lok Sabah election campaign.
Jairam Ramesh stated that his party wants the Constitution to be amended to remove the 50% cap on the quota imposed by the Supreme Court.
He accused the Janata Dal-United (JDU), which left INDI Alliance and joined NDA, of maintaining silence on the issue and added, “They passed a resolution regarding category status. It is very easy to do that but will they put pressure on their ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Patna and Delhi? Will the Chief Minister tell the Prime Minister that we are supporting you and ask for special category status, the caste census and eliminate the 50% limit? JDU is not addressing the issue anymore. So it is quite easy to say but it is very difficult to do and there is a huge difference between the two.”
The Bihar administration’s proposal to increase quotas for Dalits, members of backward classes, and tribal people from 50% to 65% in government positions and educational institutions was overturned by the Patna High Court on 20th June. A division bench chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Harish Kumar, while passing the order on a bunch of petitions which had opposed the legislation brought by the state govt in November 2023, declared the two amended reservation laws of Bihar, the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (in admission to educational institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 as unconstitutional.
On 28th May, Rahul Gandhi promised to get rid of the 50% cap on the caste-based reservation and increase quota benefits for people from Dalit, backward and tribal communities. “BJP and RSS want to finish this, change this. And the Congress and INDIA bloc are trying to save this. This Constitution has given you rights on jal (water), jangal (forest) and zameen (land). Narendra Modi wants to remove them, he wants full power,” he claimed while addressing a poll rally at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh.
The Gandhi scion pledged, “That’s why they gave the ‘400 seats’ slogan. But forget 400, they are not getting 150 seats. They say they will remove the reservation. I want to tell you from this stage, we will increase reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap. We will give as much reservation as needed for the poor, the backwards, Dalits and Adivasis.”
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) on 22nd April red-flagged the Karnataka government’s move to categorise Muslims under the backward caste bracket for reservation purposes. According to the panel, social justice principles in the nation are weakened by this kind of broad classification. The government data, as cited by NCBC, indicated that all castes and communities of Muslims in the state have been included in the list of OBCs for reservation in employment and educational institutions. The commission had looked into the state’s quota policy for OBCs in government employment and educational institutions during a field visit last year.