‘Modi’s info is all mistaken’: C.S. Dwarkanath

C.S. Dwarkanath explains reservations for Muslims in Karnataka.
| Picture Credit score: ARUN KULKARNI

C.S. Dwarkanath was chairman of the Karnataka State Fee for Backward Courses between 2007 and 2010. He’s at the moment the chairman of the Social Justice Division of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and the get together’s chief spokesperson. In an interview with Frontline, he discusses the difficulty of Muslim reservations in Karnataka.

Excerpts:

Karnataka’s 4 per cent reservation for Muslims as a part of the bigger pool of reservations of 32 per cent for backward lessons has been in place for the previous 30 years. This has turn out to be an election difficulty. Throughout his marketing campaign on April 23 in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of “snatching the reservation of SCs, STs, and OBCs and offering it to Muslims via the backdoor.” He additionally particularly accused the Congress authorities in Karnataka of offering reservations for Muslims despite the fact that it was “in opposition to the spirit of the Structure”. Contemplating these developments, are you able to present the historic background of how Muslims had been granted reservation in Karnataka?

Muslim reservation began within the pre-Independence period within the Mysore Princely State when Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar (1902-1940) established the Justice (Leslie Creery) Miller Committee in 1919, which thought-about Muslims to be “backward” and supplied reservation. After Independence, former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs constituted the (L.G.) Havanur Backward Courses Fee within the Nineteen Seventies, which once more advocated for a particular standing for the Muslim group as a backward class.

On the time, a petition was filed earlier than the Karnataka Excessive Court docket (HC) questioning categorising a non secular group as a backward class. The HC, in its determination, disagreed with the petition that said {that a} group couldn’t be recognized as a backward class simply by advantage of its religion. Interesting this determination, the case was heard within the Supreme Court docket the place Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy upheld the HC’s determination. This judgment was delivered based mostly on Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the Structure of India as Muslims, as a group, had been socially and educationally backward.

Even B. R. Ambedkar used the phrase “backward lessons” and never “backward caste” or “backward faith” when his responses had been recorded by the Kaka Kalelkar Fee (the primary Backward Courses Fee of India). In keeping with Ambedkar, communities which can be educationally or socially backward might be thought-about as backward lessons. So, different spiritual minorities resembling Christians, Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists, other than Muslims, additionally come beneath the designation of backward lessons in Karnataka.

Former Supreme Court docket Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy (centre) upheld the HC’s verdict that disagreed with the petition that said {that a} group couldn’t be recognized as backward class simply by its religion.
| Picture Credit score:
SUDERSHAN V

Muslims had been accorded reservation in authorities jobs and academic establishments in 1994 through the tenure of former Chief Minister H. D. Deve Gowda. What was the background for this?

It was not through the tenure of Devegowda however through the tenure of his predecessor, Congress Chief Minister Veerappa Moily. Earlier than that, Justice Chinnappa Reddy, after he retired from the apex court docket, was appointed because the Chairman of the Karnataka Backward Courses Fee. His report analysed the socio-economic situation of Muslims and beneficial the inclusion of the group beneath the backward lessons class. Based mostly on this advice, Moily included Muslims within the backward lessons record beneath the class of IIB (Extra Backward). Some Muslim castes who’re historically nomadic tribes had been positioned beneath class I (Most Backward) on the identical time. This has continued from that point with Muslims additionally securing social justice and nobody disturbed this until 2023.

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The Karnataka unit of the BJP put out a disturbing and provocative cartoon on X on Might 4, which blatantly accused the Congress (represented by Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah) of diverting the reservations supplied to SCs, STs, and backward lessons to Muslims. What do it’s important to say about this?

There isn’t any query of taking anybody’s share and redistributing it to Muslims. That is blatantly false. For those who really learn the suggestions of Justice Chinnappa Reddy, Muslims had been imagined to be supplied with seven per cent reservation however three per cent was slashed and solely 4 per cent was supplied lastly. Muslims haven’t taken away anybody’s share and in reality, are underrepresented. That commercial is deceptive and a lie and has been put out by the BJP simply to impress the backward lessons!

Leaders of the BJP cite the Andhra Pradesh case the place the Excessive Court docket there struck down reservations supplied to Muslims on two events in 2004 and 2005. Even the Supreme Court docket, in its interim order in 2010, said that established order must be maintained.

There’s a superb technical distinction between offering reservation for Muslims or a non secular minority based mostly on its spiritual identification and as a backward class based mostly on its social and academic backwardness. Within the case of Andhra Pradesh, the reservation was supplied based mostly on spiritual identification due to which the HC dismissed it. If the State authorities had supplied reservations for Muslims since they’re a backward group, the choice would have been upheld. Most individuals are unable to understand this distinction. Even a caste group can’t be supplied reservation solely on the premise of its caste identification; it must be deemed backwards earlier than this and that’s the reason we’ve totally different levels of backwardness in Karnataka even among the many backward lessons. There are 5 distinct classes inside the backward lessons in Karnataka.

How is a group’s backwardness gauged? Are there any goal indicators to designate a non secular group or caste group as backward?

When Havanur studied the difficulty of Muslim backwardness in Karnataka, he checked out indicators resembling what number of Muslim college students accomplished their SSLC (Secondary Faculty Leaving Certificates) together with different instructional indicators. Justice Chinnappa Reddy took it a step ahead and even visited Muslim ghettos to grasp the social standing of the group’s members. In keeping with Justice Reddy, the social standing of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits in lots of elements. The Justice Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Misra Fee have subsequently reiterated this. This additionally reveals that there’s a want for higher and common empirical knowledge to guage the situation of assorted communities on the bottom.

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Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai scrapped the reservation for Muslims simply earlier than final yr’s Meeting election and redistributed it amongst Lingayats and Vokkaligas. When the order was challenged within the Supreme Court docket, the three-judge bench listening to the difficulty noticed that the transfer was “extremely shaky and flawed”. After this, the established order was to be maintained in Karnataka and reservation for Muslims continues within the State. Why has Modi continued to select up this difficulty even after the Court docket’s observations?

Modi’s info is all mistaken. His informants are giving him the mistaken recommendation. Throughout Bommai’s tenure, former Legislation Minister J.C. Madhuswamy ready the report that beneficial the scrapping of reservations for Muslims and there was no foundation for dismantling Muslim reservations and redistributing it amongst Lingayats and Vokkaligas within the ratio of two per cent for every group. Even leaders of those two communities refused this reservation that had been snatched away from poor Muslims. Modi is selecting up points with out scrutinising them. He’s the Prime Minister however his system of procuring knowledge is so poor. He goes everywhere in the nation speaking about Karnataka with out understanding what’s in place right here.

Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, the chairman of the Nationwide Fee for the Backward Courses (NCBC) has questioned the 4 per cent blanket reservation supplied for Muslims in Karnataka. What’s your opinion on this?

Does Ahir suppose he’s chakravarti (king) and we’re all his subordinates? The Karnataka State Fee for Backward Courses has its personal authority and autonomy and isn’t answerable to the NCBC. What nonsense is that this? We now have our personal independence and might take choices relating to the implementation of social justice in our State.