Modi’s Doosra

After several weeks of correspondence, the Karnataka government responded to questions posed by the National Commission of Backward Classes over the validity of a 4% quota for Muslims in educational institutions and government jobs with an extraordinary assertion: communities like Muslims and Christians cannot be categorised in terms of religion or caste. The state further asserted that the entire Muslim community is deemed backward and therefore eligible for reservation. A scrutiny of reservations offered by the Karnataka government makes it clear that quotas are in fact being offered to Muslims on both counts – as a religious group and on basis of caste. So, the community stands to benefit under categories where they are listed as other backward classes (OBCs) under 36 caste affiliations such as Kasai (butcher), Dhobi (washerman) and Sonar (goldsmiths) besides a 4% catch-all quota which was reinstalled by the Congress government after it won the May, 2023, state election. It did so by reversing the BJP (Bharatiya Janata party) government’s decision to scrap the Muslim-specific provision on grounds that religion-based reservations are unconstitutional.

The ongoing exchange between the NCBC, headed by BJP leader Hansraj Ahir, and the Karnataka government flared into prominence after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sharp attack on the Congress manifesto and Rahul Gandhi for seeking to redistribute wealth and resources, particularly to benefit Muslims. The pointed reference that Modi reiterated after raising the issue at a rally in Rajasthan’s tribal Banswara on Sunday has consumed the poll discourse and could mark a pivotal moment in the 2024 election campaign. Modi has charged Congress with seeking to undercut the rights of OBCs, Dalits and tribals by re-allocating benefits on religious lines to promote its vote bank. The Congress manifesto’s pledge to address inequality in wealth and income through changes in policies and Rahul’s April 6 remarks elaborating that a financial survey will follow a caste count to deliver various sections their due. Speaking near Hyderabad, Rahul said “We will do a caste census in the entire nation. We will do an X ray of the nation…backwards, dalits, adivasis, poor from general castes, minorities will know their share. There will be a financial and institutional survey, we will find out in who’s hands is India’s wealth, in the hands of which class (warg). After this historical step, we will begin revolutionary (krantikari) work.” Modi seized on the comments, with their strong redistribution overtones, and linked the Congress pledge to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2006 remarks at a meeting of the National Development Council that minorities have a first claim on resources. “The component plans for scheduled castes and tribes will need to be revitalised. We have to device innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly, the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh had said.

The Prime Minister’s broadside drew a sharp denial by Congress and a section of commentators argued that Singh had been quoted partially. Singh’s remarks had, at the time when he made them, ignited quite a furore and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) had to clarify that his reference included Dalits, tribals, women and children, not just minorities. Similar explanations were offered again, but there is no getting away from the specific mention of minorities and Muslims in Singh’s speech. Rahul’s detailing of what the caste survey-financial survey scheme will add up to not only added grist to the BJP mill, it saw Modi warn voters Congress’s plans amount to a radical Chairman Mao-style redistribution of wealth and assets. Hitting an emotive note, he said family gold and even the mangalsutra married women wore will not be safe. Modi’s allegation that Congress intended to redistribute or redirect resources among Muslims was strongly criticised by Opposition leaders and Congress complained to the election commission that the Prime Minister violated the law prohibiting appeals to religion and community during elections. Modi followed his Banswara speech with another salvo on Tuesday at a rally at Tonk where he said Congress wants to reduce SC-ST reservation and distribute it among Muslims. “The day before yesterday in Rajasthan, I put forth some truth in front of the country, and the entire Congress and INDI alliance went into a panic. I put forth the truth that Congress is plotting to snatch your property and distribute it to their special people,” he said.

Congress spokespersons denied the party manifesto or its leader endorsed any plan for redistribution of wealth on the lines alleged by the Prime Minister and said the party’s agenda is one of upliftment of the poor. But politics is often about optics and the cut and thrust of arguments. Congress had picked the comments of Hindutva hothead Anant Hegde, denied a ticket in this election, to claim BJP was seeking a super majority of 400 Lok Sabha seats to amend the Constitution and snatch the rights of scheduled castes and tribes. It was a damaging charge and Modi and senior BJP energetically rebutted the allegation, pledging their commitment to the Constitution. Modi’s counter-attack flipped the Congress manifesto onto the opposition party. And unlike the accusation that BJP wants to alter the Constitution there is current and past evidence of Congress’s attempts to carve out a quota for Muslims despite repeated setbacks in courts. Karnataka government’s communication with the NCBC states that all Muslims are under reservation category II-B and are considered as OBCs making them eligible for quota benefits. Apart from this 4% quota, 17 and 19 Muslim castes can access another 4% and 15% reservations under category I and II A along with dozens of other Hindu OBC castes. The Bommai government announced scrapping of the category II-B quota in March last year, saying non-backward Muslims can access the EWS (economically weaker sections) reservations. According data with the NCBC, the number of Muslim students who accessed caste-specific reservations for admission to undergraduate and post-graduate courses in medical colleges in Karnataka in 2021-22 was 85 and 24. The same for 2022-23 was 75 and 25. The total number of PG medical seats allotted under these categories for 2021-22 were 113 and 103 in 2022-23. This indicates Muslim OBC candidates accounted for a significant number of admissions in the Category I and II A seats. The number of Muslim candidates admitted for PG studies under the catch-all 4% quota is 101 in 2020-21, 140 in 2021-22 and 102 in 2022-23. It is evident that benefits, including the 4% quota applicable to all Muslims, flowed to the community even when BJP was in office and the category was scrapped just ahead of the assembly election. It was, as has been noted earlier, reinstated after BJP lost the election and a Congress government led by chief minister Siddaramaiah assumed office.

The designation of all Muslims as OBCs not only cuts into the share of non-Muslim backwards but also hurts the interests of genuine claimants from the minority community itself. “You can see from the data the extent to which such religion-based reservations, which are illegal, have hurt OBCs. Many Muslim candidates, apart from the unconstitutional aspect of the category, would have been ineligible due to the creamy layer ceiling for OBC reservations,” Ahir told Open. In a statement released to the media, the NCBC said though caste system is not permissible in Islam, the Muslim community is not immune from casteism. “There are various castes in Muslim society who have been historically underprivileged and victimised. The religion based reservation affects and works against the ethics of social justice for categorically downtrodden Muslim castes/ communities and identified socially and educationally backward Muslim castes under category I and II-A,” the commission states. It concludes that socially and educationally backwards castes cannot be at par with the rest of their community based on religion. This is tantamount to creating an uneven playing field where the better off will have a head start in accessing reservations meant for the disadvantaged. “We have asked the Karnataka government on what basis have they declared the entire Muslim community as backward?” Ahir said. Modi referred to the actions of the Karnataka government in his speeches on Wednesday in addition to the attempts of Congress governments in next door Andhra Pradesh to legislate reservations for Muslims. The Andhra Pradesh instance goes back to 1994 when K Vijayabhaskar Reddy was chief minister and certain categories were sought to be included in the OBC list. The initiative remained unfulfilled when Telugu Desam Party leader N Chandrababu Naidu became chief minister but was revived when YSR returned to office in 2004 who tthen carved out a 5% reservation for Muslims. The decision was struck down by the Andhra high court leading to YSR setting up a commission and passed an ordinance that was converted into an Act. This too was quashed by the high court. Yet again, on the basis of the fundings of the commission he had set up, YSR issued another ordinance providing a 4% quota for 14 categories of Muslims. This time, the Supreme Court stayed the decision, seeing it as an all too transparent effort to get around the constitutional bar on reservation on the basis of religion. The matter is still in the SC. The TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) government in neighbouring Telangana sought to raise quotas for backward Muslims from 4% to 12% in keeping with their population but the legislation did not receive the Centre’s assent.

The cases of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh established concerted efforts of Congress governments to provide reservations for Muslims as a community. While categorisation of certain Muslim castes as OBCs is legal and such lists exist in almost every state and even at the Centre, the Congress project is intended to expand the eligibility far beyond what is feasible and constitutionally valid. As in the case of Andhra Pradesh, the courts have been the bulwark against the bids to implement illegal quotas while Congress’s defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha put paid to more ambitious efforts to alter the reservation matrix. A desire to play to the sentiments of minorities animated the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government’s stab at passing the communal violence bill – as it was commonly referred to – but which was shelved due to a political backlash. In March, 2005, the UPA constituted the “Sachar Committee” to examine the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India. Among the measures considered in the light of the committee’s report, UPA proposed an Equal Opportunities Commission. The contentious proposal never took wing over concerns about its power to monitor private sector and the possibility that it might end up as forum to settle scores. The bill, was the brainchild of the NAC (National Advisory Council) headed by Sonia Gandhi, defined victims of communal violence as religious and linguistic minorities in any state as also SCs and STs. In other words, the majority community could not be victim of communal violence. By alluding to Congress’s record of minorityism or, as BJP puts it, vote bank politics, Modi hit the party on a sensitive node, threatening to set off a counter-reaction that might severely damage its prospects. The comments of Gandhi family advisor Sam Pitroda supporting an inheritance tax provided more ammunition for BJP with Modi promptly turning a life insurance tagline to his benefit and saying that Congress loot would not stop even after death.

The Congress manifesto and Rahul’s remarks at poll rallies give form to his “jitni abadi, utna haq” slogan. The shift in rhetoric from empowerment to redistribution – or even distribution as Congress leaders argue – moves the party’s agenda much beyond the rights-based policies UPA advocated. The references to minorities in the manifesto, which repeatedly speaks of “ensuring” minorities receive their “fair share” in education, healthcare, public employment, public works contracts, skill development, sports and cultural activities point to this thinking. Similarly, Congress’s declaration that it will ensure minorities enjoy freedom of choice of “dress, food, language and personal laws” – even while paying lip service to reform of such laws – is an endorsement of different statutes for marriage, divorce and inheritance. Home minister Amit Shah made the point bluntly, saying Congress backs Sharia in personal laws. It trying to offer a “new deal” to voters by sharpening its appeal among minorities and forging a new class coalition, Congress finds itself teetering. The Congress manifesto and Rahul’s unguarded comments have given BJP just the opening the party and Modi were waiting for.

2024 Elections2024: CountdownBJPGeneral election 2024MuslimsNarendra ModiOBCsquotaredistribution