The history of Muslim reservations in Telangana and why it’s caught in a political wrangle this poll season

Telangana’s four per cent Muslim quota hit the headlines on April 23 after Union home minister Amit Shah called the reservations unconstitutional at a public meeting in Chevella, near Hyderabad. He asserted that if the BJP comes to power, these reservations would be scrapped. Currently, the quota is being extended in the education and employment sectors to backward Muslims.Here we would talk about Telangana’s Muslim quota and its genesis, the basis on which it was formulated, and why it is in such a political wrangle today. Amit Shah’s proclamations evoked strong reactions from Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, the Congress as well as AIMIM, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.To shed light on the history of Muslim reservations in the Telugu state, we have with us Roushan Ali, senior assistant editor with The Times of India, Hyderabad, who has been closely following the state’s politics ever since Telangana’s inception..When did Telangana bring Muslims under the reservation list and on what basis?Roushan says the first proposal to bring Muslims under reservations dates back to the 1960s, long before Telangana was conceived. During that time, the then Andhra Pradesh government had been studying the backwardness of the other backward classes, and it realized that some sections of Muslims like washermen and weavers were more backward than the scheduled caste on the educational, social and economic fronts. So, the government started including them in the backward categories right from that time. But ever since, securing these reservations has been a long legal battle. Every time the government provided reservations to Muslims, someone or the other went to court to contest that -- whether it was political parties, individuals or social organizations.Finally, in 1994, the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh led by chief minister Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy issued a government order including two categories of Muslims like washerman and weavers into the OBC list. That government also constituted an OBC commission chaired by Justice Puttaswamy to look into the issue of inclusion of Muslims into the OBC list. But, the Congress government fell soon after. The Telugu Desam Party came to power and kept extending the terms of the Puttaswamy commission for almost nine years. The report was never made public. In 2004, the Congress stormed back to power. During the poll campaign, Congress leader YS Rajasekhar Reddy had promised the Muslim community reservations if voted to power. In tune with this promise, within 56 days of forming the government, in July 2004, an order was issued providing 5 per cent quota to Muslims by treating them as OBCs and by creating a fifth category. Till then, there had only been four categories for the backward classes, A, B C and D. Now, the Muslims were taken into a fifth one called category E. But in September 2004, the high court shut down this reservation order on the ground that it was against the Supreme Court’s 50 per cent cap on reservations. The high court had then said that there was already a quota of 25 per cent for OBCs, 15 per cent for scheduled castes and 6 per cent for scheduled tribes in the state. If there was a 5 per cent BC-E quota on top of that, the total reservations were amounting to 51 per cent, which was above the SC cap. So, after consulting legal luminaries, the government formed a backward classes commission headed by Justice D Subramanyam in November 2004. This commission did extensive field studies on the socio-educational backwardness of various categories of Muslims in the state. It submitted a report recommending reservations based on socio-educational backwardness among 14 categories of Muslims then. It also suggested that the reservation be brought down to 4 per cent to keep it well within the 50 per cent SC cap.These 4 per cent reservations are continuing since then, first in Andhra Pradesh and then in Telangana too, when it was formed in 2014. Are the reservations based on religion? Do all Muslims benefit from it?Roushan says the reservations are extended purely on the social and educational backwardness of Muslims. And, not all Muslims get these reservations. The BC commission had recommended 14 categories of Muslims who were found to be very backward, socially and educationally. Some of them are the dhobis, the washermen, the Fakirs, who survive on alms. Then there are the Garadi Muslims, Gosangi Muslims, Hajam Muslims who are barbers, Labbai Muslims, Sheikhs, the Turaka Kashas and so on. The government had excluded the sections of Muslims who were considered to be better off socially and educationally when compared to these sections. So, the Syeds, the Mughals, the Pathans or the Irani, the Arab, Bohra or Khoja communities were excluded from the ambit of the Muslim reservations.Did these reservations uplift Telangana’s backward Muslims?Roushan shares that they have benefited immensely on the educational front, but not as much on the employment sector. These reservations are given in the education and employment sectors, and not many recruitments were conducted in the state government sector. On a rough estimate, Roushan says that about 20 lakh Muslim students benefitted by getting admissions in MBBS, Engineering, MCA, MBA, B Ed, M Ed and other professional courses since 2004, when these reservations were launched for the Muslim community. One reason for the success of these reservations is that the state government came up with a free reimbursement scheme for Muslims getting seats in professional courses under these reservations.Many of these Muslims were very poor and despite getting a seat under government quota, they did not have the money to pay the fees. Then, the government came up with this scheme of reimbursing the fee to the educational institutions, who in turn would reimburse the students who had paid them. This is how the enrolment of Muslims increased after reservations were provided to them in the higher education sector.After the formation of Telangana state, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had promised the Muslim community that the reservations would be increased from 4 per cent to 12 per cent in keeping with their population density after Telangana was formed. A special state Assembly session was convened and a resolution passed, stating that Muslim reservations should be enhanced to 12% by a constitutional amendment. That resolution was sent to the Centre, which is still sitting on it.How are political parties dealing with it? What are the conflicting standpoints?Except the BJP, all the main political parties like BRS, Congress and AIMIM have supported the reservations. The BJP has been opposing these reservations right from the beginning, stating that these reservations are based on religion. The other parties have been contradicting that, saying the reservations are not based on religion, but on social and economic backwardness. Even when a resolution was passed in the Assembly, recommending enhancement of reservations from 4 per cent to 12 per cent, there were five BJP MLAs in the State Assembly who had protested against the resolution. All five of them were suspended from the Assembly, and then the resolution was passed. So, the BJP is opposing this tooth and nail, stresses Roushan. Leaders of BRS, Congress and AIMIM have slammed Union minister Amit Shah for saying that BJP will scrap the reservations if it is voted to form the government in Telangana. The ruling BRS argues that in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu the reservations is 69 per cent, so why can’t Telangana be given that facility by making amendments in the Constitution or by the assent of the President? The Telangana government is still promising the Muslim community that it will pursue the central government and get the Muslim quota enhanced from 4 per cent to 12 per cent. Audio production: Prateek Kapoor