A new legislation granting 4 percent reservation to other backward classes (OBCs) under Category 2B, seen as favouring the Muslim community in awarding government contracts, has kicked up a storm in Karnataka. Labelling it “unconstitutional”, the BJP has called for scrapping the quota in the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Bill, which is for awarding contracts to OBCs for civil works up to ₹2 crore and for procuring goods and services worth up to ₹1 crore. The Congress government claims the quota will help tackle unemployment among all OBCs, not Muslims alone. At present, the reservation matrix in civil works contracts is 24 percent for scheduled castes and tribes, 15 percent for OBC Category 2A and 4 percent for Category 1.
The BJP has called the move “contract jihad” and the issue has reached parliament. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, caught up in a slanging match over changing the Constitution, has said he would consider legal action against the BJP for distorting his statement on quota for Muslims. While the BJP appears selective when it comes to the quota-merit debate, its ally Janata Dal (Secular) has opted to tread a more moderate path, advocating equal opportunity for the socially and economically backward.
For a context, we need to look at the quotas’ backstory. In 1995, the H D Deve Gowda government in Karnataka had given 4 percent reservation to Muslims under Category 2B, and 2 percent to Buddhists and SCs who had converted to Christianity—all within the OBC quota, in accordance with a Supreme Court verdict. In 2019, the BJP government scrapped the 2B category for Muslims and distributed it to Vokkaligas and Lingayats, while Muslims were included in the 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections. This was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2023.
Reservation on the basis of caste, religion, sect and class—with a slew of quotas and sub-quotas—flies in the face of meritocracy. But it is a deeply entrenched system on which Indian politics is based today. Admittedly, reservation is still necessary to provide a sense of equity in a social structure riddled with divisions, and eradicating the quota system anytime soon appears utopian. For caste to lose its primacy, we first need a paradigm shift in mindset, equal education and workable solutions at the grassroots.