Bengaluru: Days after the Karnataka government removed Muslims from the backward classes list, former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa has reached out to the minority community by stating that he has never practised politics of exclusion.
The Basavaraj Bommai government’s ‘solution’ to the reservation crisis in effect gave the Muslims’ quota share to Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
“I want to tell our minority Muslims, no matter who says what, if there is one programme that I have done (implemented) which was only for Hindus, not for Muslims, I will retire from politics,” Yediyurappa said at a public gathering in his home constituency of Shikaripura Monday.
“I have never shown any partiality. Yediyurappa has always believed that Hindu-Muslims should live as children of the same mother…that is the reason (that) so many Muslims have come here and I cannot repay the debt of their love and affection.”
Yediyurappa’s comment comes at a time the Panchamasalis, the biggest sub-sect within the dominant Lingayats, have rejected Bommai’s decision by which Muslims were removed from the 2B category in the state backward classes list — which has 4 per cent quota — and their share equally divided between Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who happen to be politically most influential communities in Karnataka.
Muslims were the sole religious minority in the 2B category of the backward classes list.
According to the 24 March decision, the community — around 13 per cent of the state’s population — can now avail economically weaker section (EWS) quota that has 10 per cent reservation.
In Karnataka, there have been five main communities under the EWS quota — Brahmin, Jain, Arya Vysya, Nagarthas and Mudaliars — which make up around 4 per cent of the state’s estimated 70 million population, according to media reports.
“Instead of 4 per cent, they (Muslims) can take more chances in 10 per cent. They get more opportunities,” Bommai had said.
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‘We are givers not takers’
The decision favouring Lingayats and Vokkaligas, comprising around 17 per cent and 14 per cent of the state’s population, according to media reports, is being seen as an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get the backing of these communities in the assembly election.
On Monday, the Panchamasalis rejected the Bommai government’s decision for a second time in less than two months.
“We will not accept this (decision), won’t celebrate it and will reject this. We are not gaining any happiness by causing pain to another community (Muslims),” Vijayanand Kashappanavar, the president of the All India Panchamasali Lingayat Mahasabha, was shown by local channels as saying in Belagavi Monday.
“We are a community that believes and follows the teachings of Basavanna. And under this, we practise ‘Dasoha’ (charity). We only give and have no philosophy of snatching from others.”
Traditionally, the Vokkaligas have rallied behind behind former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), and the Congress. This community is decisive numbers in several districts of southern Karnataka, especially in regions such as Mandya, Mysuru and Hassan.
So far, the Lingayats have backed a Yediyurappa-led BJP but their decision may change over allegedly broken promises, such as the Panchamasali Lingayats’ demand for reservation.
With Yediyurappa not contesting these elections, the community may have little reason to remain with the party. The Congress is reaching out to the Lingayats with promises of better reservation.
Bommai had first said in January that since there were very few communities in the EWS category, the surplus from the quota would be given to the Lingayats and Vokkaligas. In March, the government removed the Muslims from the backward classes list, and added them to the EWS category.
In January, the government decided to do away with categories 3A (Vokkaligas & others) and 3B (Lingayats & others), which have a reservation of 4 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, and created categories 2C and 2D respectively.
Now the newly carved categories will each get 2 per cent additional reservation each, taking the quota for Vokkaligas and other groups to 6 per cent and that for Lingayats and others to 7 per cent.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)