Reservation Issue Becomes The Focus Of Political Fight Between BJP And Congress

By Sushil Kutty

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is adamant that nobody (does “nobody” include Congress?) can “change the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar” and that nobody “can finish reservation” either. The question then boils down to can anybody give Muslims reservation, i.e., reservation on the basis of religion?

The Constitution says ‘no’. The Congress leaves everything to a guessing game, knowing well that religious reservation will require changes to the Constitution. Does Kharge need to rethink? Perhaps, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shiv Kumar knows far more about the Constitution than Kharge.

The reality is Muslim reservation has become a bone thanks to Shiv Kumar’s casual remarks. The row is now full blown and eating into the innards of Parliament. MPs of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party couldn’t wait to lunge at each other’s throats.

Ask the Muslim if he wants Muslim reservation? The answer will be, ask the secular parties and they wouldn’t risk alienating Muslims. The Congress is as if it has staked all its political fortunes on Muslim reservation. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi does not shy away from saying the Congress is pro-Muslim.

The Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party battle on Muslim reservation is being fought in the Rajya Sabha, which keeps getting adjourned. Rajya Sabha proceedings don’t count for much for most Rajya Sabha MPs and, come to think of it, the elders create more din than MPs of the Lower House.

There used to be days when parliament reporters gave the Rajya Sabha a miss for the “dull” proceedings in the Upper House. Nowadays, after the BJP took over duties as the power centre, the Rajya Sabha is where all the fun and excitement comes to a head.

On March 25, Rajya Sabha was adjourned in the pre-lunch session itself. No business was transacted. Both treasury and opposition benches shouted and screamed their reservations on the issue of Muslim reservation with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge delivering his piece de’ resistance.

“Nobody can change the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Nobody can finish the reservation. To protect it, we did the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. They (NDA MPs) break India,” said Kharge, raising the ire of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

“Raising the issue of Muslim reservation, Congress has sullied the prestige of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution. If you have guts, demand the resignation of Deputy CM (DK Shiv Kumar) today itself,” said Rijiju. “They want to give reservation to the Muslim community by changing the Constitution…the Muslim representation and reservation issue was rejected in 1947…Our Constitution is secular; there can be reservation (only) on the basis of economic and social criteria.”

Whoever thought the day will come when the BJP will charge the Congress with being “communal”? Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said the Constitution doesn’t allow reservation on religious lines. How can the Samajwadi Party let the Congress run away with the Muslim votes?

Does that make amendment of the Constitution to enforce Muslim reservation more difficult? To answer the question with a question, can the Congress and/or the rest of the opposition parties, which make up the INDIA bloc, win elections banking solely on the Muslim vote-bank?

The answer is a big ‘no’, politics has gone topsy-turvy in recent times and the scale of Hindu votes consolidation has overturned all the political calculations of the opposition parties which depend on slices of the Muslim vote-bank to stay in the hunt for power.

Recent assembly elections prove the trend. There cannot be any ifs and buts about it. A 4% reservation for Muslims will not halt the trend. The Muslim vote-bank is no match for the consolidated Hindu vote-bank. The oft-reported saying “Ab Hindu jaag gaya hai” is a reality nobody can dismiss outright.

The clamour for Muslim reservation has further consolidated the Hindu vote-bank in the BJP’s favour. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is a past-master in playing one vote-bank against another vote-bank. To believe, watch and hear BJP’s spokespersons at work in the TV talk-shows reserved solely for Modi’s “Mahima-Mandal”.

The reality is, the most of the Hindus are now almost convinced that the Congress is a “Muslim party”. The Congress is, in fact, on a suicidal mission and the Samajwadi Party, too. Both these secular parties did their best to woo the Muslim and alienate the Hindu.

It is not that the Congress will find its “Eureka moment” with Muslim reservation, it is just that the BJP found its ‘Mahakumbh” with Yogi Adityanath’s slogan “Batenge toh katenge”. And from then on, it had become very difficult for the Congress to come within smelling distance of power.

A series of Hindu-centric events and happenings have contributed to this. LoP Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was only one of the reasons that brought Hindus together. Mallikarjun Kharge read it dangerously wrong when he mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and linked it to Muslim reservation, which to the Hindu is nothing but more “Muslim appeasement!” (IPA Service)