Is religion-based reservation being promoted to further political interests? This was the premise on which a sub-discussion was centred around in the Legislative Council on Wednesday.
Raising this point during a short discussion on ‘Welfare and Development of Minorities’, BJP member N. Ramachandra Rao said though India was a secular country, religion was unfortunately used for political gains. “Can we go against the Constitution?” was his poser.
Referring to the proposed 12 per cent reservation for Muslim minorities by the TRS government, he recalled that when the Congress government in the united Andhra Pradesh had proposed five per cent reservation for Muslims, the Court had rejected religion-based reservations and said it should be based on backwardness. It also ruled overall reservations could not go beyond 50 per cent. “There is poverty and illiteracy in every religion. Don’t link reservation and religion,” the BJP member said. The Centre was extending many welfare schemes for the betterment of socially and economically backward minorities without linking them to reservation, he said.
Mr. Ramachandra Rao said that the TRS was misleading people by citing the case of Tamil Nadu where reservation percentage was 69 per cent. The issue was pending before the Supreme Court and was not approved yet.
His argument was countered by the members of MIM, TRS and Congress. Leader of Opposition Md. Shabbir Ali, MIM member Razvi and TRS member Rajeswara Rao said there was no caste system among Muslims but there were socially, educationally and economically-backward Muslims as among Hindus based on vocations that they pursued. Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali reiterated that reservation for Muslims was not being given on the basis of their religion, but on the basis of their backwardness.
Mr. Razvi wondered whether erecting Shivaji’s statue not amounted to appeasement of one community in Maharashtra while Mr. Shabbir Ali sought to know on what basis the BJP government extended reservation for Patels in Gujarat and Gujjars in Rajasthan.
