Telangana passes bill to hike Muslim quota to 12%

Why can’t Muslims be given reservations? Are they sinners... Don’t they pay taxes? Are they not citizens of India?

The Telangana government passed a bill on Sunday to increase reservation in jobs and education for backward Muslims to 12%, exceeding the Supreme Court’s 50% ceiling for such benefits.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government bulldozed its way, convening a special assembly session on Sunday, a holiday, to pass the bill through a voice vote after hours of intense debate and suspension of five BJP legislators who opposed religionbased reservations.

Backward Muslims in the new state — carved out of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014 — are already entitled to 4% reservation in educational institutions and government jobs.

Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao introduced the proposed law: the Telangana backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes (reservation of seats in educational institutions and of appointments or posts in services under the state) bill, 2017.

“After the bifurcation of the combined Andhra Pradesh state, the percentage of Muslims in Telangana has gone up and 90% of them are poor and socially backward. Hence, we have decided to increase the quota for Muslims, treating them as OBC (other backward class),” he said.

He dismissed allegations that his government was providing more reservation in the name of religion.

The BJP members opposed the bill, saying reservation for Muslims goes against the Constitution. Party lawmakers trooped into the well of the House and shouted slogans, forcing legislative affairs minister T Harish Rao to move a motion to suspend them. Marshals escorted out the BJP members later.

Also, the bill sought to increase reservation for STs from 6% to 10%. The combined increase takes the state’s total reservations to 62%, way higher than cap prescribed by the Supreme Court in a landmark 1992 ruling.

The chief minister, called KCR by his supporters, was confident of getting the enhanced quotas legalised by incorporating them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution through a constitutional amendment.

It was done before for Tamil Nadu in 1994, where the overall quota for various groups was 69%, he argued.

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