Bengaluru, Mar 27 (UNI) Karnataka Congress has promised to restore reservations for Muslims if voted to power.
The assurance comes in the wake of the BJP government abolishing 4 per cent reservation for Muslims under OBC (2B) classification.
"The government thinks that reservation can be distributed like property. It is not a property. It is the right (of minorities). We don't want their four per cent to be scrapped and given to any of the major communities.
"They (members of the minority community) are our brothers and family members. We will scrap all this and there is no basis to remove Muslims from the OBC list," Shivakumar told reporters here.
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah alleged that the BJP government has changed the reservation matrix to create division within castes and religion and gain electoral advantage. "The BJP has announced illegal reservations," he added.
The new reservation is also anti-democratic, which will be annulled in the court, Siddaramaiah said.
JDS Legislature Party leader HD Kumaraswamy said the BJP government is trying to enforce its hidden agenda of creating a rift between religions.
"In the name of reservation, the government is trying to enforce its hidden agenda of creating a rift between the two religions. How is it right to take away from one and give it to another? The BJP's time is over in the state," he said.
In fact, it was JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda's government in Karnataka that had accorded 4 per cent reservation for Muslims. "Now, the BJP government has taken it away," Kumaraswamy alleged.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Wakf Board has expressed its displeasure against the government and demanded it to restore it.
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