In the wake of the controversy over the past two weeks regarding the Waqf Board’s notices to farmers in Karnataka, a new dispute erupted in the State on November 12, a day before three Assembly constituency byelections. News broke that the State government was considering reserving four per cent of government civil works contracts up to Rs. 1 crore for Muslim contractors, matching their share in the IIB quota.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s office quickly issued a note acknowledging that while there has been a demand for Muslim reservation in government civil works, “there is no formal proposal regarding this pending before the State government.” Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar stated, “The BJP has spread this canard that Muslims will be provided reservation in government civil works to benefit in the byelections. There is no such proposal.”
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Despite these denials, documents reveal that a proposal to amend the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act has been pending with Law Minister H. K. Patil since October 25, following the Chief Minister’s approval. The approval came after an August 24, 2024, letter from the CM’s political secretary, Naseer Ahmed, an MLC. Ahmed’s letter requested extending to Muslims the reservations currently provided to Schedule Castes (17 per cent), Tribes (7 per cent), and Other Backward Castes under Category I (4 per cent) and IIA (15 per cent). He cited “the socio-economic backwardness of Muslims” as justification.
The controversy follows recent tensions over Waqf Board notices to farmers and echoes previous battles over Muslim reservation in the state, with the BJP seizing the moment to accuse Congress of “appeasement politics”. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU
Several Muslim legislators endorsed Ahmed’s letter, including Ministers B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan and Rahim Khan, along with Tanveer Sait, Saleem Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar, N. A. Harris, Rizwan Arshad, Asif Seth, Kaneez Fathima, Iqbal Hussain, and Bilkis Banu. Documents show that after receiving the CM’s approval, the Minority Welfare Department placed the proposal before the Finance Department on October 19, 2024. While the CM’s office has not addressed these documents’ authenticity, Minister Shivanand Patil remarked, “What is wrong if Muslims are provided reservation in government contracts?” BJP State president B. Y. Vijayendra called the proposal part of a “series of moves by the Congress government for the appeasement of Muslims.”
The four per cent Muslim reservation in Karnataka under Category IIB has existed since 1994 for government recruitment and educational admissions. The previous BJP government under Basavaraj Bommai attempted to scrap it in 2023, but the Supreme Court ruled against this decision, maintaining the quota. The Congress government now apparently seeks to extend this reservation to government civil works contracts, following similar reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs implemented in 2016 during Siddaramaiah’s previous tenure.
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This revelation, coming a day before the byelections, has worried Congress leaders, especially following the recent Waqf controversy. BJP leaders focussed on the Waqf issue while campaigning for the November 13 byelections in Sandur, Shiggaon, and Channapatna. A Congress leader campaigning in Channapatna, where Janata Dal (Secular) leader H. D. Kumaraswamy’s son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, faces C. P. Yogeshwar of the Congress, said, “The JD (S) and the BJP turned the election into a Hindu-Muslim contest and raised the Waqf controversy to ensure that votes are polarised. The issue of Muslim quota in government contracts also started spreading on social media just a day before the elections, and I think this will also impact voters.”
