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Bengaluru, Aug 20 (IANS) Responding to the Karnataka government implementing the internal reservation report with modifications, the state BJP unit claimed that the government “may not” have followed the Supreme Court order while implementing the internal reservation.

BJP State President and MLA B.Y. Vijayendra claimed that in the matter of implementing internal reservation, even the Supreme Court’s order does not appear to have been properly followed by the Chief Minister.

He also claimed that even the Justice Sadashiva Commission’s report has not been properly implemented. Likewise, Justice Nagamohan Das' report too has not been properly implemented, he alleged.

“Justice Nagamohan Das had created five categories – A, B, C, D, and E – but now it has been limited to A, B, and C. If you are going to carry out the division as per the wishes of people like Congress MLA Narendra Swamy and others, then what was the need for the government to spend hundreds of crores on Justice Sadashiva Commission and Justice Nagamohan Das Commission?” he said.

He further claimed that when the BJP government under Basavaraj Bommai was in power, they had taken a “bold decision” regarding Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

“At that time, Bommai had increased reservation for Scheduled Castes from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. But Siddaramaiah, who was then the Leader of the Opposition, had gone around the state spreading false propaganda that the BJP government’s internal reservation decision was never implemented and that it was all drama and deception,” he said.

“Why has Siddaramaiah run away now when the Opposition leaders sought a debate. This amounts to disrespecting the Assembly,” he claimed.

He recalled that while the Congress government had only announced the Justice Sadashiva Commission, it was actually the earlier BJP government under B.S. Yediyurappa that provided funds and institutional support for it. Later, Basavaraj Bommai had taken it forward to a logical end, he noted.

Vijayendra said that the issue will be discussed in the assembly tomorrow, and they will demand a statement from the Chief Minister. “Siddaramaiah must tell the truth to the people; otherwise, he should apologise to the people of the state,” he insisted. “How was this done without proper data? We will debate this tomorrow,” he said.

Meanwhile, former CM and BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in order to save his political chair and to silence the growing demand for a Dalit CM, succumbed to the pressure from dominant SC communities and said Siddaramaiah rejected Justice Nagamohan Das’s report and the Supreme Court’s directions, and on the pretext of technical reasons, committed injustice to the deprived SC communities.

Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, he said Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had clearly stated in the Constitution that reservation must be revised from time to time based on population. In Karnataka, the SC list began with just six castes, but today there are 101 castes included by successive Congress governments. Yet, they never increased the reservation accordingly. This is a great betrayal. Whenever new castes were added, if the quota had been increased proportionately, justice would have been done. But they were added only for political reasons.

In a major development, the Congress-led government in Karnataka has announced that it has accepted the Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission report, with certain modifications, and implemented its recommendations on the long-pending issue of internal reservation.

The BJP MLAs, led by Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka, staged a walkout from the Legislative Assembly, condemning Speaker U.T. Khader’s decision not to allow a discussion on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s statement regarding the acceptance and implementation of the judicial commission report on internal reservation.

--IANS

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