Congress high command gets local quota bill shelved

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah put on hold the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024 under pressure from the Congress high command, it has been learned.

The party’s central leadership stepped in after industry leaders expressed alarm over the Bill, which mandates reservation for locals in the private sector. It carves out a 50 per cent quota for Kannadigas in management jobs and 70 per cent in the non-management sector.

The locals for whom jobs are reserved are defined as persons who possess a Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) with Kannada as a subject.

In lieu of this, those who’ve lived in Karnataka for more than 15 years can take a proficiency test under a nodal agency proving they can read and write in Kannada.Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet had cleared the Bill on Monday.

However, when the news became public, industry leaders including Manipal Global Education (MGE) Chairman Mohandas Pai and pharmaceutical giant Biocon Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw made statements on the social media site X (previously Twitter), calling it an infringement on their recruitment policy, adding that there was bound to be a scarcity of local talent.

There were fears that there would be an exodus of companies from Bengaluru. Making matters worse, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Human Resources Development Nara Lokesh took to X to invite a miffed National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) to relocate to the neighbouring state.

Only Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said that his company would comply with “all regulations”.

Kharge says play it safe

However, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge had seen enough and decided to step in and convince Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to get the local quota Bill to be put on hold.

The reasoning behind the move was a potential exodus of tech companies to neighbouring Andhra. This is an about face because the Congress high command had been sold on the idea of local quotas as poll promises before the Assembly elections in both Karnataka and Telangana.

Gandhi himself has taken to expressing more assertive forms of social justice measures like reservation in the private sector, albeit for marginalised sections. However, he has had to concede to Kharge’s demand to withhold the local quota Bill in Karnataka.

Concerns were also raised about the legal feasibility of the law. Every state where such a law was passed, it was struck down. Most recently, in November last year, Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down the Haryana State government’s Bill mandating 75 per cent reservation for locals in the private sector in the state.