E-Paper
Why faith is not at play in quotas for Muslims
Reservation for Muslims, as for Hindus and other faiths, falls within the backward classes categories. A look at states where such quotas have been given
Among the many issues that have come up for discussion and debate in poll-bound Karnataka is the particularly contentious one surrounding reservation for Muslims in the state. In March, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Karnataka government scrapped the four per cent reservation for backward Muslims shortly before the announcement of the date of the assembly elections to be held next month. The state gave two per cent additional reservation to each of the dominant communities, the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who were already getting 5% and 4% reservation under the OBC category.
The decision was challenged before the Supreme Court, and the Karnataka government assured the court that it will not implement its decision till May 9 — the day before polling, and the date set by the court to continue its hearing.
Last month, at a rally in Telangana, Union home minister Amit Shah promised to scrap the reservation if the BJP comes to power in one of the youngest states in India. He called the reservation to Muslims under the backward classes “unconstitutional”.
Reservation or affirmative action in India is neither region-based, nor religion based. The Constitution of India guarantees reservation to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities on account of the historical injustice they have faced due to caste discrimination. Other backward classes also receive reservation on account of the deprivations faced due to social and economic discrimination. Nevertheless, Muslim communities have reservation under OBC category in many states. The issue has been a bone of political contention in some of them; in others, the law has taken exception to the quota. Let’s take a look.
West Bengal
In 2010, the government headed by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya announced 10% reservation in state jobs for “economically, socially and educationally backward” Muslims who fall within the OBC-A (most backward) category. Muslims under OBC-B (backward) category have 7 % reservation.
The 10% reservation in the OBC-A category was based on the recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities whose report was tabled in Parliament in December 2009.
The report said that since minorities, especially Muslims, are under-represented, and sometimes wholly un-represented in government offices, they should be regarded as backward in this respect within the meaning of that term as used in Article 16 (4) of the Constitution. The report said 15 % posts in all cadres and grades under Central and state governments should be earmarked for backward classes and within this recommended 15 %, 10 % reservation shall be for Muslims.
When the Left Front government enforced this in 2010, 49 out of 56 “most backward” communities in the OBC-A category in Bengal were Muslim. In the “backward” OBC-B category, there were four Muslim groups out of 52 communities, who received 7% reservation. Of the 108 communities in the OBC (A and B) lists, 53 were Muslim communities.
In 2011, the state’s Muslim population stood at 27.01 % according to the census. After coming to power following the assembly polls that year, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee included more communities in the OBC lists in phases.
At present, there are 81 communities under OBC-A and 99 under OBC-B category according to the state backward classes welfare department. Of these, 56 Muslim communities are listed under OBC-A and 41 Muslim communities are listed under OBC-B category.
Professor Moidul Islam from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences said: “The states and the Centre have separate OBC lists. This quota does not provide any platform for competition in public sector jobs because Muslim OBC people will only compete with people from a similar OBC category.”
Since 2010, four cases challenging these reservations have been filed at the Calcutta High Court by people affiliated to Hindu organisations. The BJP was made a party in three of these petitions. The litigation is continuing.
“Only a handful of Muslim communities in Bengal are left to be included in the OBC lists. Mamata Banerjee has left the Marxists far behind. The Constitution does not permit reservation on the basis of religion. Moreover, Muslims claim that Islam is a religion of brotherhood and such casteism is fake,” Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar argued that if BJP claims that only Hindus are entitled to OBC status then the party is admitting its failure to uplift the social and economic status of the majority community.
“Religion never interferes with caste classification. In Bengal, there are tribal people and lower caste Hindus who have embraced other religions, such as Islam and Christianity. Does it mean they cease to be economically and socially backward and hence, should be dropped from the OBC lists? The same applies to Muslims as well. This reservation is based purely on social and economic parameters,” he said.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Muslims have had 4% reservation in education and employment under OBC category since 2007, when the two states were united. Soon after coming to power in May 2004, the then Congress government led by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy provided a 5% quota to Muslims by including them under OBCs, in a category called BC-E. This was quashed by the high court in 2005 after Vishwa Hindu Parishad secretary of then combined Andhra Pradesh filed a writ petition challenging it.
The government then enacted a legislation based on the recommendation of the AP Backward Classes Commission, but the law was struck down by a five-judge bench of the high court on various grounds including the argument that there was no provision for religion-based reservation under the Constitution.
An expert committee headed by retired IAS officer P S Krishnan in July 2007 suggested that the government give four per cent reservation to only 15 backward groups of the Muslim community to avoid the legal complications.
While implemented by the government, this too was quashed by the high court. The state moved the Supreme Court in 2010, and the top court passed an interim order upholding the constitutional validity of the government’s policy. The matter has since been referred to a special Constitutional bench and continues to exist in AP till further orders.
After Telangana was formed, the KCR government enacted a legislation to increase the Muslim reservation to 12% and sent it to the Centre for approval — which it didn’t get. Muslims get 4 % reservation in the state, and this has not been challenged in the SC.
Bihar
Muslims are recipients of reservation under the category of extremely backward classes or castes classified in annexure -1 as EBCs.
Former chairman of the state backward classes commission, Bihar Uday Kant Choudhary said there were around 32 castes in Muslims classified in EBCs list who receive reservation. Only three castes among Muslims — Syed, Sheikh and Pathan — who are classified as upper castes, do not get reservation benefits, he said.
“One caste among Muslims is categorised in other backward classes. The various caste groups categorised in EBCs among Muslims are getting benefits of reservation in educational institutions, Panchayati Raj institutions and jobs,” he added.
The reservation policy for Muslims by putting backward classes among Muslims in EBCs was introduced as part of the 'reservation formula' by former chief minister Karpoori Thakur in 1978. There was no backlash against the decision at the time.
Last October, the Supreme Court found that the current OBC reservation in the state did not pass the mandated triple test. As a result, earlier this year, the Bihar government started an exercise to collect caste and religion information, which will then form the basis on which reservation can be granted.
Tamil Nadu
The composition of the 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu is as follows: Backward Caste (BC) are eligible for 30% reservation, which includes 3.5% reservation for Muslims.
In the 1990s, BC Muslims were part of the BCs, but this was carved as a separate sub-category during the DMK regime in 2007. Most Backward Caste (MBCs) are eligible for 20% reservations, broken down into 10.5% for Vanniyars, 7% for Denotified Communities (which constitute 28 castes) and 2.5% for others (41 castes). Scheduled Castes in the state have 18% reservations, and Scheduled Tribes have one per cent, taking the total up to 69%. This reservation was granted before the Supreme Court verdict in 1993 which capped reservation to 50%. It is the only state in which the SC order does not apply.
Gujarat
In Gujarat, 27% of the seats in government and education are reserved for OBC, 7.5% for Scheduled Castes and 15% for Scheduled Tribes for a total of 49.5% of all seats. Some Muslim communities like Siphai, Pinjara, Ghanchi, Dafer and Bafan fall under the OBC reservation category in Gujarat.
There are close to 25 such sub-castes of Muslims that get reservation under Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) declared by the Gujarat state.
“Muslims in Gujarat are about 9% of the total population. Of the 6.5 crore population of the state, if there are 60 lakhs Muslims, not more than 5 lakhs would be covered in the SEBC list. The population of Muslims covered under OBC is scattered and are very less in numbers,” said sociologist Gaurang Jani. There are close to 150 sub-castes in the OBC category list.
There is no recent data on the socio-economic condition of Muslims and the last available information from the 2006 Sachar committee, said Ghanshyam Shah, a political analyst and retired professor from JNU.
“A majority of Muslims in Gujarat are poor but there are also small strata that fall in middle or upper middle class,” he added.
There has not been any major political debate raised in the past few years around Muslim reservations in Gujarat.
Haryana
The Haryana government proposed up to 16% of the total 27% reservation for backward classes in the state for Nat and Meo Muslims, who mostly live in the Mewat region that falls in Gurugram and neighbouring southern districts of the state. Muslims received reservation on the basis of the recommendation of the backward classes commission in 1995, when the reservation quota was increased from 10% to 27 %. However, the Punjab and Haryana high court stayed the reservation for certain Muslim communities such as Muslim Jats in 2017.
