On March 24, the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s purported comments about “changing the Constitution” to provide Muslims reservations caused a stir in the Parliament.
The Deputy Chief Minister refuted any suggestion that the Constitution would be altered to allow for religiously based reservations. The president of the KPCC further charged that J.P. Nadda, the leader of the BJP, had misquoted him.
Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on March 24, Mr. Shivakumar said, “I am sensible, senior politician than Nadda. I have been in the Assembly since last 36 years. I have basic common sense. I have not said that there will be any… I have said casually that there will be so many changes after various judgments. I have not said that we are going to change the Constitution. Whatever they are quoting is wrong. They are misquoting it. We are a national party, we know what Constitution is. I will move a privilege motion on this. I will fight a case; they are misquoting me.”
Following Mr. Shivakumar’s presence on the News18 India Diamond States Summit 2025 on March 23, 2025, the dispute broke out. Mr. Shivakumar stated that the “constitution will be changing” in reference to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025 amendment, which grants 4% reservation to contractors from the Muslim community in the State’s public works sector. His comments provoked a heated debate and BJP officials reacted negatively.
Mr. Shivakumar said, “There is a big debate around this. Many BJP leaders have criticised it, claiming that Muslims are only fit for fixing tyre punctures or selling meat. But it is our duty to uplift people from all sections of the society. We have given them opportunities and reservation in education and employment but we must also uplift them economically…We wanted to help the Muslim community in a smaller way and make them part of the development process, and hence have them do contract work.”
In response to a query that even the Constitutions doesn’t allow for reservation on the basis of religion, Mr. Shivakumar clarified, “I agree, let us wait and watch. Let us see what the courts say. I know people will approach the court. Let us wait for the good day; good day will come. Lot of changes are there and the Constitution will be changing. There are judgements which alters the Constitution also.”
The KPCC chief’s remarks were criticized by BJP officials, who said the Congress was “communal” and weakened the protections given to underprivileged populations. The Congress party, according to MP Sambit Patra, is trying to split the nation once more. Speaking to the news agency, Mr. Patra said, “Congress’ true face is revealed today. Their nature has been revealed today. DK Shivakumar is not an ordinary leader. He is close to the Gandhi family, to Rahul Gandhi… Nehru ji partitioned the nation to keep his ambition alive. To become the PM, he divided Maa Bharti into two on the basis of religion… Today, the Gandhi family is doing the same.”
In a detailed post on social media platform X, Mr. Shivakumar lashed out at a “frustrated” BJP, its State and Central leadership and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju for “resorting to brazen and blatant lies to malign the Congress Party and me by falsely attributing statements to me.” He provided more explanation to “BJP & its lying Ministers,” stating that he was not in the Assembly during the Bill’s consideration and that he never stated that the Constitution will be changed in any way to provide for religiously based reservations. “Historically, Baba Saheb and Congress framed the Constitution and BJP’s parent organization opposed it. Even till last Parliament, BJP wanted to change the Constitution and was asking for 400 seats to deny rights to poor and underprivileged. To hide their sins, they are now accusing the Congress and me. Also, reservation in Karnataka is given based on criteria of backwardness,” he wrote. He attributed the recent controversy to the BJP’s “sinister design” to abolish the guarantees. He said: “BJP is peeved with the 5 Guarantees of Congress which transfers over ₹52,000 CR to the poor and underprivileged. The sinister design is to somehow abolish the Guarantees, which will never happen and can happen over my dead-body. I will continue this fight to defend the guarantees and these conspiracies of BJP will fail decisively.”
On March 21, the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which grants 4% reservation to contractors from the Muslim community in public works, was passed in both Houses of the Legislature amid protests from the opposition BJP and JD(S) members and a resolute defense by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Later that day, the opposition petitioned Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to deny the bill approval.
The Congress maintained that reservation was based on socioeconomic backwardness rather than religion, while the BJP rejected the Bill, citing the absence of constitutional provisions to justify religion-based reservation. According to Karnataka’s backward classes reservation matrix, the community falls under category 2-B. The Bill aims to grant reservations to the 2-B category.
