Amit Shah for ‘no quota’, but Muslims already backward class in Haryana

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram , July 17

A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that OBC reservation won’t be given to Muslims, the Congress has asked the Saffron party to get facts right. Various leaders have highlighted how Muslims, especially Meo Muslims, are part of the same backward class category from which CM Nayab Saini comes from and how the BJP in 2016 continued this classification which they “blame” the Congress for.

16 lakh from community in BC ‘B’

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• Muslim population estimated to be around 25 lakh in state
• Around 16 lakh are Meo Muslims and in BC ‘B’ category
• In BC ‘A’ list of 71 castes, 13 are Muslim communities

Deputy Leader of Opposition and Meo Muslim leader Aftab Ahmed has highlighted how 60 per cent of Muslims in Haryana already are part of backward class list and enjoy reservation. While the Congress is credited for it, the BJP endorsed it with the passage of 2016 reservation Bill under then Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar where various Muslim communities, including Meos, were listed in Backward Class A and Backward Class B categories.

“The Home Minister was talking in the national context. The implications of the same in the state are yet to be finalised and thus we can’t comment much on it,” said BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma.

“This shows the bankruptcy of the BJP. They had a government here for 10 years and when the Home minister chose to address public all he could talk about was Hindu or Muslims rather than any developmental work.

He should have talked of the reservation if any new community was being benefitted but he chose to communalise the subject which is the characteristic of the BJP,”

said Ahmed. He dared state BJP leaders to announce removal of Muslims from backward class.

Of an estimated Muslim population of around 25 lakh, around 16 lakh are Meo Muslims. According to the ‘Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Government Jobs and admissions in Government Jobs and Admissions in Educational Institutions) Bill, 2016, backward classes are divided into two categories. BC ‘A’ is an exhaustive list of 71 castes amongst which 13 are Muslim communities. Simlarly, Meos are included in BC ‘B’ category along with Ahir/Yadav, Lodh/Lodha/Lodhi, Saini/Shakya/Koeri/Kushwaha/Maurya, Gujjar, and Gosai/Gosain/Goswami.