Splashed throughout the entrance pages of main newspapers in Karnataka on Sunday, October 9, was an commercial issued by the BJP authorities within the state heralding a “historic choice by the federal government of Karnataka”.
On the eve of Valmiki Jayanti – the start anniversary of Maharishi Valmiki, an icon of the Scheduled Tribe Valmiki Nayak neighborhood, falling on October 9 – the BJP authorities in Karnataka sprung a political shock by asserting a choice to boost reservations for SC/STs. The choice was taken at a Cupboard assembly on October 8, accepting the suggestions of the Justice Nagamohan Das panel, which had been arrange throughout the Congress-JDS coalition in 2018, to extend the SC/ST quota.
The state Cupboard unanimously agreed to hike reservation for SCs to 17% (from 15%) and for STs to 7% (from 3%),” Bommai mentioned after the assembly.
The transfer to implement the panel’s suggestions, submitted 18 months earlier, is seen as a bid by the BJP to retain the assist of the Valmiki Nayak neighborhood, towards Congress makes an attempt to woo them over.
The biggest among the many practically 52 tribes within the state, the Valmiki Nayaks have predominantly backed the BJP. In truth, it was BJP CM B S Yediyurappa who first declared Valmiki Jayanti as a state vacation in 2011. In 2019, BJP minister B Sreeramulu promised to usher in enhanced quotas – a long-standing demand of the neighborhood – if the BJP got here to energy.
Among the many SC neighborhood, a big part often known as the SC (left) group is taken into account to benefit from the BJP’s assist, principally as a result of the extra dominant SC (proper) part of Dalits has largely allied with the Congress owing to sturdy leaders from the neighborhood equivalent to Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Bommai authorities’s choice to extend SC/ST quotas comes within the midst of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, at the moment in Karnataka, which is scheduled to undergo tribal and SC-dominated areas within the state equivalent to Chitradurga, Ballari and Raichur this week.
It’s a political choice by the BJP. All nowadays, they slept over the Justice Nagamohan Das fee report. They’ve all of the sudden woken up. That is the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, value rise, and the corruption allegations towards the BJP. They’ve hastily turn out to be lively on this problem,” V S Ugrappa, a former Congress MP and member of the Valmiki Nayak neighborhood, mentioned.
The largely muted response of the Opposition – the Congress and JDS – is indication that the BJP transfer is well-calculated, with the 2023 state polls barely eight months away.
“There will definitely be an affect. Even after a yr of being in energy, nothing was executed. Within the modified state of affairs, they’ve taken this choice,” a senior Congress chief mentioned. A bit of the Congress additionally feels that the BJP has capitalised on “a difficulty that the Congress celebration didn’t muster sufficient braveness to execute”. “It was a mistake by our celebration,” a Congress chief mentioned.
Nonetheless, there may be some apprehension amongst politicians that the BJP’s transfer may “boomerang” if no critical efforts are made to make sure that the choice stands as much as the scrutiny of legislation and that calls for of the opposite communities such because the Panchamasali Lingayats — to be included within the OBC class to avail greater reservations– aren’t addressed equally.
The speedy authorized hurdle for the hike is the Supreme Courtroom ceiling on quotas of fifty per cent. As executed by Tamil Nadu to extend the quota to 69 per cent, the Karnataka authorities may search a constitutional modification for the quota provisions to be included within the Nineth Schedule of the Structure, and therefore past judicial scrutiny. This is able to require the BJP authorities on the centre to push the constitutional modification.
“They must carry a Invoice whereby they must assign causes and make provisions as per para 810 of the Indira Sawhney Supreme Courtroom case, which specified that solely beneath distinctive circumstances, on the idea of information, reservation will be enhanced from an higher restrict of fifty%,” Ugrappa mentioned.
The Bommai authorities has indicated that it’s going to, in the intervening time, problem an govt order to boost the SC-ST quotas within the authorities and {that a} choice for a constitutional modification to hike the ceiling in quotas will likely be thought of later.
We have now lots of calls for for the inclusion of various communities within the backward courses class, for inclusion within the ST class. We are going to focus on all points and finalise the quota ceiling problem,” legislation minister J C Madhuswamy mentioned, including that the Central authorities has additionally exceeded the 50% restrict after its 10% EWS reservation.
The current BJP authorities constituted the Justice Subhash Adi committee in July 2021 to take additional choices concerning quotas and to look into the calls for of reservations of varied communities – together with the Panchamasali Lingayats – a key sub-sect of the dominant Lingayat neighborhood which helps the BJP. Extra choices on enhancing quotas for various caste teams could possibly be within the pipeline forward of the 2023 state polls.
Madhuswamy mentioned the federal government was “the calls for of all communities for enhanced quotas”. “We have now selected one of many urgent problems with the enhancement of the SC/ST quota… Our celebration and all events promised to boost reservations in accordance with the inhabitants of those communities. We have now confined ourselves to this in the intervening time,” the BJP minister mentioned.
He added that the federal government was not “upsetting different communities” and that “quota points won’t be thought of with no correct scientific report”. “Within the case of the SC/ST communities, there are three to 4 studies which might be earlier than us. We have now been sluggish in implementation,” Madhuswamy mentioned.
He added: “We’re not going to the touch the prevailing quota however we’re going to enhance the reservations past 50%. It could have an effect on the final class to some extent however we’re not going to the touch the quotas of the OBC.” Bommai additionally mentioned that “within the coming days, choices concerning inner reservation among the many SCs/STs will likely be taken in due session with specialists and leaders of all events”.
Background
The difficulty of enhancement of SC and ST quotas within the state was first raised in 2015 throughout Siddaramaiah’s tenure as CM by Congress legislators citing a rise within the inhabitants of the communities because the 2011 Census.
A caste survey was carried out beneath the Kantharaju fee then, however its suggestions weren’t accepted by the Congress authorities in mild of the 2018 state elections.
Congress legislators within the JDS-Congress coalition in energy between 2018-2019 managed to push for the structure of the Justice Nagamohan Das fee. The fee submitted its first report when the coalition authorities collapsed. The BJP got here to energy beneath Yediyurappa’s management in July 2019.
The fee made seven suggestions, together with enhancing the proportion of reservations from 15% to 17% for SCs and three% to 7% for ST’s in search of the safety of legislation to beat the 50% restrict on reservations imposed by the Supreme Courtroom, amongst others.