The Karnataka government’s decision to cancel the 4% reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category has received support from Union Home Minister Amit Shah. During a public speech in Gorata and Gabbur villages in Bidar and Raichur districts on Sunday, March 26, Shah praised the move and described reservation on religious lines as unconstitutional.
"The reservation for minorities is not constitutionally valid," Shah stated, adding that the BJP government had abolished the 4% reservation for Muslims and distributed it equally among the Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities. Shah said that the BJP does not support appeasement and that religious-based reservation is unconstitutional. “The reservation for minorities is not constitutionally valid. There is no provision in the Constitution to give reservation based on religion. This Congress government did it for its appeasement politics and gave reservation to the minorities,” he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Congress had alleged that the BJP's only game plan is to cheat, deceive, and defraud various communities in Karnataka. "The manipulative politics of the Bommai government can be gauged from the fact that the repeated categorisation and re-categorisation will not pass the test of constitutionality, or the principles laid down for reservation," said AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.