Religion no basis for reservations, Muslim quota Bill will be quashed: BJP

The BJP also made it clear it would utilise this issue to politically "rise" in Telangana

Dubbing the Bill hiking reservation for Muslims in Telangana as a "trash paper", the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said it has no legal and constitutional sanctity and would be "quashed" at the central government level.

The BJP also made it clear it would utilise this issue to politically "rise" in the state and project the ruling TRS in "bad light".

"At the party level, we are going to utilise this as a great opportunity for the rise of BJP in Telangana. And at the (central) government level, this will be quashed right at the beginning," party spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao told PTI.

The Bill, passed by both houses of Telangana Legislature yesterday, has no legal and constitutional sanctity, as the state government did not follow due process and system, according to him.

"Religion cannot be a basis for reservations, and legally its not viable as both High Court and Supreme Court has capped reservation at 50 per cent," Rao said.

The local BJP unit would go to court challenging the Bill. "They (the government) haven't followed process and so the Bill is just like a trash paper, it does not have any validity," he said.

"It will not stand the scrutiny of courts."

In the just-concluded BJP national executive in Bhubaneswar, this issue (the Bill) has been raised and discussed, he said. The Bill would go "no further" as the government has not followed due process.

"It has given us a great opportunity to project TRS in bad light because it's been irresponsible as a government, and it has undermined the rightful constitutional reservation for Backward Classes," he said.

The party would launch a "massive agitation" against reservation for Muslims, Rao said. "It (the agitation) is not going to be reactive one...One day or two days. We are going to expose TRS duplicity through one to one-and-half years leading up to elections".

He said the BJP is okay with increasing reservation for Scheduled Tribes.

Both the houses of Telangana Legislature yesterday passed a Bill which increases the reservations for Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among the Muslim community in government jobs and educational institutions.

Under the Bill, quota for STs would be increased to 10 per cent from the existing six per cent, while that for BC-E category (the backward sections among the Muslim community) would go up to 12 per cent from the existing four.

The total reservations in the state, consequently, would go up to 62 per cent from the existing 50 per cent.