How Shivakumar’s remark has given fresh ammo to BJP to strike back at Congress

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar appears to have given the BJP just the ammunition it needed to strike back at the Congress on the latter’s socio-political pitch of ‘saving the Constitution’ from assaults by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Addressing an event organised by a TV channel on Sunday (March 23), Shivakumar had reportedly alluded to the possibility of changing the Constitution, if needed, to grant legal sanctity to the Karnataka government’s recent move of providing 4 per cent reservation to Muslims in government contracts.

While the Congress’ Karnataka government had already been drawing sharp criticism from the state’s BJP unit for “violating the Constitution” by allowing reservations based on religion, Shivakumar’s statement has now allowed the BJP to sharpen its attack and take it national.

Also read: Karnataka: Congress, BJP spar over 4 per cent quota for Muslims in govt contracts

Uproar in Parliament

Both Houses of Parliament saw massive protests by BJP MPs immediately after they convened for the day on Monday. In the Rajya Sabha, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed the Congress for “speaking the language of the Muslim League” and accused the party of “destroying the Constitution” by allowing religion-based reservations.

The minister added that the statement made by a “Congress leader holding a constitutional post” is a “very serious matter that the House cannot ignore” and demanded that Leader of Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the Congress president, must “clear the stand of his party” on the subject. Rijiju was promptly backed by Leader of the House JP Nadda, who slammed the Congress for its “double-speak” on protecting the Constitution, alleging that the grand old party was out to “demolish the Constitution” by granting reservation to Muslims, an idea that was “floated in the Constituent Assembly by the Muslim League and rejected by the framers of the Constitution”.

Kharge sticks to party stand

While Kharge, who has previously backed the Karnataka government’s move to grant four per cent reservations to Muslims in public contracts, made no defence of Shivakumar and stuck to his party’s oft-repeated accusation at the BJP – “we are the ones protecting the Constitution while they (the BJP) are destroying the Constitution” – the Treasury Benches erupted in protests. Nadda and Rijiju demanded that the issue of reservation based on religions should be discussed in Parliament and that Kharge must “come clean” on whether his party endorses Shivakumar’s stand on “changing the Constitution”.

The raucous disruptions forced Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to adjourn the House till 2 pm. The Lok Sabha too saw Rijiju lead the BJP’s charge against the Congress when the House convened at noon following an adjournment of proceedings shortly after 11 am. By now, though, Shivakumar had offered a shoddy clarification to the media saying his statement was made “casually” and “did not mean to suggest” that his party would change the Constitution to allow religion-based reservations, the controversy had snowballed further.

Also read: Karnataka: BJP to protest 4 per cent Muslim quota in public contracts

BJP wants DKS to quit

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Rijiju demanded Shivakumar’s “immediate resignation” and wondered, “How can this House stay silent when a Congress leader occupying a constitutional post is talking about changing the Constitution... bringing in ideas of the Muslim League”. On cue, a howl of protests began from the Treasury Benches forcing an adjournment till 2 pm.

BJP sources said the party “will not let this matter die down” as Shivakumar’s statement is the “biggest example of Congress’ anti-Constitution mindset”. The Congress, on the other hand, has been forced to go on the defensive, knowing full well that while it cannot countenance Shivakumar’s purported statement, it also would find it difficult to force Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to roll back the four per cent reservation granted to Muslims in public contracts without facing backlash from the Muslim community.

Turning the tables on Cong

The BJP, sources said, believes the latest row helps the party fall several birds with one stone. The party believes Shivakumar’s statement has given it a chance to “turn the tables” on the Congress over the Constitution issue as the saffron party was badly bruised during last year’s Lok Sabha polls by the ‘Save Constitution’ pitch around which the Congress and its allies in the INDIA bloc had pivoted their entire poll campaign.

By marshalling Shivakumar’s statement for its fresh offensive, the BJP wants to reiterate the charges it had levelled against the Congress during the debate on ‘75 years of the Constitution’ which Parliament had witnessed last August. Modi and his party MPs had, during that debate, scorched the Congress by pointing out the “numerous occasions” when the Constitution was amended during Congress regimes to “undermine the vision of the framers of the Constitution” and also with allegations of the party being “anti-SC/ST and anti-OBC” – communities for which affirmative action is envisaged in the Constitution.

BJP’s appeasement charge

That the Congress plans to “take away reservations from the SC, ST and OBC communities and give it to the Muslims” has been a recurring charge levelled at the party by Modi and the BJP.

Also read: No proposal to allow Muslim govt staff to leave work early during Ramzan: Karnataka minister

The Karnataka government’s bill paving the way for a Muslim quota in public contracts and now Shivakumar’s purported push for a Constitution amendment to make this possible gives the BJP a handle to sharpen its Muslim appeasement charge against Congress while also accusing the party of undermining the constitutionally mandate affirmative action plan for the electoral consideration of minority appeasement.

Moreover, the fresh blitzkrieg also grants the BJP a chance to keep the Congress’ Karnataka government unsteady by exploiting the widely-known turf war between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.