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Reservation fix: Telangana's Muslim quota on shaky legal ground

  • The CM has announced a bill proposing 12% reservation for Muslims would be introduced soon.
  • The state already has 4% reservation for Muslims.
  • The bill is expected to face opposition from the Centre.
Telangana bill Muslim quota

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on January 18 declared that he would introduce a bill proposing 12% reservation for Muslims in government educational institutions and jobs in the forthcoming Budget Session of the State Assembly. The “Muslim Reservation Bill” is a long-delayed promise that Rao had initially made in the run-up to the 2014 elections.

 

The state, which has a Muslim population of around 13%, currently has 4% reservations for the community. Rao, who was speaking in the Assembly, declared that the proposal was not based on religion but was targeted at poor sections of the Muslim community. Not surprisingly, the BJP has opposed the move, claiming that reservations on religious grounds would not stand legal scrutiny. Increasing the quota for Muslims to 12% would breach the maximum reservation “limit” of 50% that has been set by the Supreme Court.

 

To overcome this legal impediment, Rao claimed that his government would adopt the “Tamil Nadu model”: The Tamil Nadu government, in 1994, managed to get the Centre to make an amendment to the Constitution to move its reservation laws to the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. Laws covered under this schedule cannot be challenged by courts under most circumstances. Tamil Nadu had sought the amendment to allow reservations up to 69% for various communities, including backward Muslims.

 

Rao has cited the Tamil Nadu example and appealed to the Centre. He also warned that he would approach the Supreme Court in case the Centre didn’t oblige. However, a case against Tamil Nadu’s decision for reservations of 69% is currently pending in the Supreme Court. An adverse verdict could complicate matters for both states.

 

The demand for reservation for Muslims is intimately linked to political calculations in the State. The existing quota of 4% was implemented before the partition of Andhra Pradesh by the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2007; this decision also faced significant roadblocks in the State High Court. Rao’s TRS was subject to heavy criticism by the opposition Congress for its delay in passing the Muslim Reservation Bill. Significantly, the predominantly Muslim AIMIM, which has considerable influence among the minority community in Hyderabad, has been guarded in its reaction.

 

The Muslim Reservation Bill is likely to face stormy waters when it reaches the Centre as the BJP’s ideological parent, the RSS, has long opposed reservation on the basis of religion. The nature of the bill is likely to increase polarisation in the state while providing little benefit to Muslims.

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