Bengaluru: The Siddaramaiah-led government’s proposal to allocate four percent reservation for Muslims in public contracts in Karnataka is “incentivising religious conversion into Islam”, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya said Wednesday.
Posting a clip of himself speaking on the issue in Lok Sabha, he wrote on X, “The ulterior motive of the reservation by the INC (Indian National Congress) is to provide opportunities for banned anti-social elements from PFI (Popular Front of India) and KFD (Karnataka Forum for Dignity) to secure govt contracts.”
Surya’s remarks came a day after the state government tabled in the assembly the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill 2025, which proposes, among other things, a four percent reservation for Muslims under 2-B category of the State Backward Classes list for government contracts below Rs 2 crore, and procurement of goods and services below Rs 1 crore through various public departments.
In its statement of objectives, the government said that the provisions to include Muslims was to “overcome the unemployment problem” and “encourage their participation” in various public contract works, attracting barbs from the Opposition benches in the ongoing budget session of the Karnataka assembly.
“The BJP is unable to digest anything. That’s why they are jealous and there is no medicine for it. That is why they (BJP) are calling it a minority budget,” Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its regional ally, Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S), have called the proposal “sarkari jihad”, saying that four percent today will turn into a 100 percent tomorrow.
4% Today, 100% Tomorrow!
This is the New “Sarkaari Zihad” that @siddaramaiah govt is imposing on Hindus & ensuring systematic discrimination against the SCs, STs & OBCs!
This is besides the Land Zihad through Waqf Board, Anti National Zihad – “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans inside… pic.twitter.com/1boJ6TiiaG
— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) March 16, 2025
National-level leaders of the BJP have also slammed the Congress in Karnataka, and the party’s high command, for its alleged patronage of Muslims, saying that religion-based reservation is not permissible under the Constitution.
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Karnataka Backward Classes list
Currently, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are given 24 percent reservation in civil works contracts and for procurement of goods and services. Four percent quota is reserved for Category-1 of State Backward Classes list, and 15 percent for category 2-A.
The new bill proposes to increase the limit of construction works to be reserved for SC/ST to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore, along with four percent reservation each for category 1 and 2-B (Muslims), and 15 percent for 2-A, which includes several small groups, including Buddhists.
The BJP argues that Muslims are a religious minority and cannot be included in the Backward Classes list. In March 2023, the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government had used the same argument to remove Muslims from the list, where they had four percent reservation under category 2-B. He then tried to redistribute the four percent equally between the dominant Lingayats and Vokkaligas-led 3-A & 3-B categories to assuage growing calls for better representation.
“We reversed this decision and the matter is now under review by the Supreme Court. Despite knowing this, the Congress government is misleading people by claiming that they are providing reservations to backward classes, while actually giving four percent reservation to minorities, which is unconstitutional and illegal,” Bommai, now the MP from Gadag-Haveri, told reporters in Delhi Tuesday.
The Muslim community was included in the Backward Classes list in 1994. While Buddhists come under category 2-A of the list, Christians and Jains are classified into 3-B.
In 1994, then chief minister Veerappa Moily had implemented the provision of a four percent quota for Muslims under 2-B category based on the Justice Chinnappa Reddy commission’s recommendations.
C.S. Dwarkanath, advocate and former chairman of Karnataka Backward Classes Commission, said that multiple commissions in the state, including L.G. Havanur, Justice Miller, Justice Chinnappa Reddy and others, have considered Muslims a part of Backward Classes. “When the Havanur commission submitted its report, it was challenged in the Karnataka High Court. But the court observed that the criteria of socially and educationally backwardness were considered and religion was not in question,” Dwarkanath, now a Congress leader, told ThePrint.
‘Bill hurting SC/ST’s’
The Congress’s defence that the bill is for all religious minorities, including Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and not just Muslims, has been unable to quell the growing clamour arising not just from the Opposition, but also a section of its core support base.
In Karnataka, the ruling party’s support base includes minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits. The BJP is broadly supported by Lingayats, and the Vokkaligas—an agrarian land-owning community—is seen to back H.D. Deve Gowda-led JD(S).
Now, representatives of SC/ST contractors have urged the Siddaramaiah-led government to separate their quota in government contracts, and not club them with provisions for religious minorities.
“We have asked that the government introduce another bill for reservation in government contracts for minorities and OBCs, and not add them as a clause with the existing provisions for SCs & STs. BJP leaders and others have threatened to file cases against the new bill, and we don’t want any complications with the provisions extended to us,” N. Mahadevaswamy, president of Karnataka State SC/ST Contractors Association, told ThePrint.
In the association’s letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Mahadevaswamy has also asked that the government limit the participation of religious minorities and OBCs to certain tenders, and reserving 17.15 percent and 6.95 percent (proportional to SC & ST population in Karnataka) of tenders for procurements below Rs 1 crore, among other concerns. The association has also threatened to move the court if their demands are not met.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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