Parliament rocked by quota issue; Opposition-BJP tussle over alleged comments by D K Shivakumar

New Delhi: Protests by the ruling BJP on Monday claiming that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar suggested changing the Constitution to provide for religion-based reservation rocked both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, with Opposition Congress alleging that the ruling party is raising a “fake issue” to stall Parliament.

While Shivakumar, in Bengaluru, denied making any such statement as he has "basic common sense” not to say such things, Rajya Sabha could not conduct meaningful business except for passing amendments made by Lok Sabha to a Bill before adjourning the House for the day while the morning session of the Lok Sabha was washed out.

Opposition claimed that the ruling BJP wanted to prevent them from raising the issue of a large amount of cash found in a judge’s residence with senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claiming that the government seems to have made up its mind to not let Lok Sabha function. Trinamool Congress floor leader Derek O’Brien claimed it was a “new low” in Parliament as MPs belonging to the ruling BJP and NDA disrupted Rajya Sabha.

In both the Houses, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju raised the issue, claiming that NDA MPs are agitated as a person sitting on a Constitutional post has made a statement on changing the Constitution to facilitate reservation for Muslims, which is “unacceptable”. The reference was to provide a 4 per cent quota to Muslims on contracts in Karnataka.

“How can the House watch in silence? Congress should clarify…the person should be sacked. You claim to give reservations to Muslims and resort to theatrics of carrying a photograph of Babasaheb Ambedkar and a copy of the Constitution in your pocket,” he said.

Amid protests by Congress MPs, Leader of House in Rajya Sabha J P Nadda alleged that the Congress was shredding the Constitution to pieces and claimed that B R Ambedkar had made it clear while framing the Constitution that “reservation will not be done on the basis of religion”.

When Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked what his demand was, Nadda said such laws and rules should be withdrawn and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also Congress president, should respond to it.

Kharge said, “no one can change the Constitution provided by Ambedkar. We are the people protecting the Constitution. We are the ones who did Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and these are the ones who believe in Bharat Todo (break India).”

As sloganeering continued, Dhankhar adjourned the House till 2 PM and when it reconvened, senior Congress MP Randeep Surjewala demanded that the Minister apologise for his remarks.

Kharge said Shivakumar did not speak about changing the Constitution and none of them would do so. “Such comments come from the other side. Hasn’t (RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat said it? At any cost, we will save the Constitution. They are saying this to suppress the issue of cash found at a judge’s residence.”

Nadda countered Kharge and said not just in Karnataka, the Congress government in Telangana has also cleared legislation to provide quota for Muslims. He alleged that the Congress is providing quota to Muslims through backdoor by enlisting the minority community as OBC. As protests continued, Harivansh Narayan Singh adjourned the House for 15 minutes and when it reconvened, sloganeering restarted, forcing an adjournment for the day.

Lok Sabha witnessed two adjournments in the morning session while in the afternoon, it resumed business with a debate on the Finance Bill, 2025.