MANGALORE: Rajya Sabha MP and former President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee B. Janardhana Poojary said he will moot a constitutional amendment in the next parliament session to increase the percentage of reservation to 80 per cent for all categories while keeping 20 per cent for the general category.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Poojary said there have been political battles over the reservation policy and some political leaders are trying to overlook the constitution and democracy by misguiding the Government. Referring to the letter sent by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda to Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh recently, he said Mr. Deve Gowda is seeking to break the existing categories under reservation on caste basis. The thrust of reservation should be towards poor people and there are poor people in every caste.

Even the Brahmin and Gowd Saraswath Brahmin castes have poor people among them, so the benefits of reservations should include them also, Mr. Poojary said.

Discussion

He said Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh had told him that there is no "agenda" before the Cabinet to take up Mr. Gowda's letter for discussion. But the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) should discuss the matter in detail, Mr. Poojary added.

Terming Mr. Deve Gowda's recommendations on reservation policy as "cheap gimmickry," Mr. Poojary alleged him of using the issue of reservation for gaining political mileage.

Caste politics

Mr. Deve Gowda is pretending to be a saviour of the minority castes in the State, but in fact he is indulging in caste politics and trying to take political revenge against other backward caste leaders.

Stating that the trifurcation of the reservation category 2A would be an unconstitutional move if taken up, Mr. Poojary said that it will further jeopardise the Social Empowerment programme in the Constitution of India.

Injustice

He said by making such "superficial" recommendations, Mr. Gowda has done injustice to the Vokkaligas, Backward Castes and Lingayats.

If somebody tries to move the court seeking review of the reservation policy, the work of the framers of the constitution will be in vain and lakhs of people will lose the benefits that they are getting out of reservation, Mr. Poojary said.

He said he even feared that Mr. Gowda's observations will start a class war.

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