The Congress government in Karnataka has given yet another handle to the right-wing ecosystem in India with its cabinet giving the go-ahead to a 4 percent reservation for Muslim contractors in government tenders, among other things, at its meeting held on Saturday.

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The clearance for the proposal to reserve government contracts for contractors from the minority community, which was already mooted in the budget speech of Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah, who also holds the finance portfolio, came at Saturday’s cabinet meeting. The meeting also considered several other proposals, including one to encourage the startup ecosystem with a special fund of Rs 100 crore.

The moment news of the cabinet’s nod for the reservation proposal broke, the BJP launched a strong protest—from Karnataka to New Delhi—with its leaders attacking the Congress for its minority appeasement policy. Former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The Congress has learnt no lessons despite losing many elections.”

Lashing out at the Congress, he said that even though the issue pertains to Karnataka, the decision has national implications and also signals the mentality of the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi. The BJP is completely against reservation on religious grounds and will continue to oppose this, the former Union Minister said.

The Karnataka Cabinet has approved an amendment to Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act, introducing a 4% reservation for Muslim contractors in government tenders. The move aims to enhance minority representation and address socio-economic disparities, though it has sparked a political debate.

Clarifying the issue, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the 4% reservation was not for Muslims alone but for all minority entrepreneurs.

An announcement on the cabinet decisions was made by MB Patil.

First off the blocks in attacking the Congress for its appeasement policy was the articulate young MP from South Bengaluru, Tejasvi Surya, who said, “This government handout to Muslims is an attack on the Constitution and an act of incentivising conversion. While granting reservations, social and economic backwardness—rather than religion—has always been the norm. But this new gimmick for electoral gains is tantamount to undoing the very purpose of reservation.”

The young MP hit out at the Siddaramaiah government for “misusing its power and public resources to indulge in vote-bank politics to turn our economy into a playground for political opportunism”.

The Karnataka cabinet on Friday approved an amendment to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act, stipulating that Muslim contractors will be eligible for reservation in government contracts up to Rs 1 crore on a par with Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) contractors. This was also blasted by BJP’s Karnataka unit president, BY Vijayendra, who said that Muslims were a significant vote bank of the Congress and that this had led to reservations in jobs and education being granted exclusively to them “against the spirit of the Constitution”. This appeasement is now being extended to Muslim contractors as well, he said.

Besides 4% reservation for minorities in government contracts, the cabinet also gave its nod to regularise unauthorised properties in rural areas and agreed to make structural changes to the Karnataka Public Service Commission, for which an expert panel would be constituted. A search committee will also be set up to oversee the appointment of new KPSC members, aiming to improve transparency in the state’s administrative recruitment process.