Quota: Govt ably justifying its stand, says Bommai

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday insisted that his government is “ably justifying” its stand before the Supreme Court on the scrapping of 4 per cent Muslim reservation and slammed Congress for ‘prejudicing’ a legal matter awaiting adjudication.

Bommai was reacting to AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala who attacked the BJP government for “con job on reservations”.

In a statement, Bommai said he is “hopeful of securing justice” from the top court.

“At the outset, the matter is in the Supreme Court and the statement made by Mr Surjewala or the Congress party is an attempt to prejudice the Court and thereby obstruct justice,” Bommai said.

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“The Constitution never contemplated reservation on the basis of religion. The architect of the Constitution of India, Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar made this speech at the time of introduction of the 1st Amendment,” Bommai pointed out.

Describing Surjewala’s statement as “hilarious”, Bommai said the Congress leader lacked “maturity in understanding judicial proceedings”.

Bommai accused the Congress of being “always busy in practicing appeasement politics” and that the party “never understood” social justice.

“In fact, the government is ably justifying its stand by engaging senior advocates. We are hopeful of securing justice from the Hon'ble Supreme Court,” Bommai said, cautioning Surjewala that he could run the risk of contempt of court.

Surjewala’s attack on the BJP is part of the Congress’ plan to prevent the saffron party from benefiting through the reservation move. It is said that party leaders have been asked to raise the issue of reservation as much as possible.

‘Cong committed on 75% reservation’

Congress leader Siddaramaiah, a chief ministerial aspirant, said his party is “committed” to raise the reservation limit from 50% to 75% to “increase reservation to all castes based on their population”.

Siddaramaiah said he is not against increasing reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats. “We support the increase in reservation for everyone based on their population. We are only opposing BJP’s eye wash during elections,” he said.

“There is no need to scrap the reservation for Muslims to increase the reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Every deserving community can be given reservation based on their population if the reservation limit of 50 per cent is removed,” Siddaramaiah said.