Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Imam and Khateeb of Jamia Masjid in Bengaluru Maulana Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rashadi on Thursday said Muslims should be given whatever is due for them, with regard to the four per cent reservation for them in jobs.

The BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai decided to scrap the four per cent reservation for Muslims in government jobs and educational institutions weeks ahead of Karnataka Assembly polls on May 10.

The Chief Imam was reacting to the Supreme Court’s observation that the Karnataka government’s decision raising the quota for Vokkaligas and Lingayats by two per cent each while scrapping the four per cent reservation for OBC Muslims prima facie appeared to be on a “highly shaky ground” and “flawed”.

The Karnataka government made the 2B category redundant by removing the four per cent reservation given to the Muslims and placed them in the Economically Weaker Section category.

At the same time, the government distributed the four per cent equally to Vokkaligas in 2C and Lingayats in 2D category of the OBC. The government also said that the reservation for Muslims in Category-1 and 2A of the Other Backward Castes has not been touched.

“We believe that whatever is due for Muslims should be given just as others are getting. Rest is left to Allah whom we believe in,” Rashadi told PTI.

He asserted that the four per cent reservation under the 2B category of the Other Backward Castes to the Muslims was not on the basis of religion but community. Muslims were getting the reservation as was given to others.

“Government has said that this reservation was on the basis of religion and this was wrong and baseless. This was the reason why we approached the Supreme Court,” the maulana said.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on April 18.

Meanwhile, retired IAS officer S M Jamadar, who spearheaded a campaign for separate Lingayat religion, welcomed the decision saying that the apex court had made an appropriate, just and fair observation.

“Just for the sake of election and to woo people, denying the rights of a community is unheard of and unthinkable,” the retired officer said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Vokkaliga Sangha. Also, neither the government nor the opposition Congress or the JD(S) reacted to the development.