The Karnataka government abolished the 4% OBC reservation for Muslims and gave it to the two other communities, Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas in a cabinet meeting. It also decided to move OBC Muslims to the 10 percent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.

Shah slams Congress on Polarization Politics in Karnataka

Internal Affairs Minister, Amit Shah expressed that Congress has only provided reservations due to its polarization politics. He also mentioned that the constitution of India does not provide reservation only on the basis of religion. The minister said, “Reservations provided to the minority were not as per Constitution. There is no provision in the Constitution to provide reservation on the basis of religion.”

“Congress Government due to its polarization politics provided reservation to the minority. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) scrapped that reservation and provided reservations to Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, “he added.

Shah said all this while he was attending an inauguration ceremony of ‘Garota Shaheed Smarak’. He also condemned the opposition party on their vote bank politics. Shah expressed, “Due to Congress’ politics of polarisation, in the greed for the vote bank, they never commemorated the people who sacrificed themselves for independence and ‘Hyderabad Mukti'”

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Reservation is not BJP’s property, says Congress

Congress has expressed that the party will be restoring the quota on the account of them gaining power in the upcoming State Assembly elections.

The President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) D K Shivakumar stepped up and said that the action was ‘unconstitutional’. He mentioned that the reservation is not BJP’s property, it is the right of minorities.

Shivkumar told the media that “They (the government) think that reservation can be distributed like a property. It’s not a property. It’s a right (of minorities).”

“We don’t want their four percent to be scrapped and given to any of the major communities. They (members of the minority community) are our brothers and family members”, he added.

“Entire Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats are rejecting this offer,” Shivakumar claimed. Exuding confidence that the Congress party will come to power in the “next 45 days”, he said: “we will scrap all this” and added that there is no basis to remove Muslims from the OBC list.