AISA condemns scrapping of Muslim OBC quota, says move to ‘marginalise minority students’

NEW DELHI: In another “arbitrary” decision, the Karnataka government scrapped the 4% reservation for Muslims under the OBC quota. The All India Students Association (AISA) opined that it was a consistent effort by the state government to “marginalise minority students in Karnataka”.

On March 25, the state government scrapped the Muslim quota under OBC reservation and distributed it equally among the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.

The state was in the spotlight after the Karnataka government put a ban on Hijab in educational institutions. This was followed by slashing of scholarships of minority communities and stopping of Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) by the central government.

Demanding the state government to immediately revoke the decision to scrap Muslim OBC reservation, the students body said: “This decision also goes against the Supreme Court's Judgement in Indira Sawhney case which says that any addition or deletion of a community from the list of categories that have rights of reservation must be based on empirical data-based study by the commission.”

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“But contrary to it, what happened is the BJP government taking decision without any final recommendation from the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. This is only in continuation of blatant and systematic attempts by BJP government to structurally weaken the backward communities and further marginalise them,” it said.

It further said, “Muslim OBCs have been included in the list not because of their religion, but based on their socio-economic conditions and recommendations by LG Havanur and Chinnappa Reddy Commission. That was later only reaffirmed by the Sachar Committee Report.”

AISA said that the move “seems to be a proactive effort to exclude Muslim students from availing education”.

The students group said: “By failing to fill over 30 lakh Central Government jobs which are lying vacant, the Modi-led Government has shown how it's not bothered at all about social justice and reservation policy.”

It further pointed out that the New Education Policy 2020 has not used the word 'reservation' in its whole document, implying that “the New India under PM Modi doesn't care about social justice policies in the education sector as well”.