Decode Politics | PM Modi’s ‘Muslim quota’ attack on Congress: What lies beneath?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said the Congress tried to extend reservation on the basis of religion and give it to Muslims. Addressing an election rally in Tonk, he said that as soon as the Congress formed the government at the Centre in 2004, one of its first tasks was “reducing the SC/ST reservation in Andhra Pradesh” and giving it to Muslims.

“This was a pilot project which the Congress wanted to try in the entire country. Between 2004 and 2010, the Congress tried to implement Muslim reservation in Andhra Pradesh four times but due to legal hurdles and the awareness of the Supreme Court, it could not fulfill its intention… In 2011, the Congress tried to implement it throughout the country,” he said.

“I want to ask the Congress will it divide the reservation for Dalits and backward tribals and give it to Muslims,” he said, adding that it showed that the party did not “care about the Constitution and B R Ambedkar”, while he himself was dedicated to the statue.

Modi also said that when the BJP government in Karnataka got an opportunity, the first thing it did was to abolish the Muslim quota, “which was created by snatching it from STs/SCs”.

What was the PM referring to?

Reservation to Muslims in undivided Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana) was first proposed in 1993-1994 when the Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy-Congress led government set up a Minorities Welfare Ministry. In August 1994, a government order was issued providing a 5% quota to Muslims and 14 other castes in educational institutions and government jobs. It could not be implemented as the Congress lost in 1994 and 1999.

In 2004, the Congress made a 5% quota for Muslims an election promise. When Y S Rajasekhara Reddy led the party to power, he announced that the