Amid survey row, Shivakumar meets Vokkaliga MLAs

Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday met with Vokkaliga legislators from the Congress to discuss the controversial caste survey following concerns raised by the community over the survey reportedly shaking up the caste matrix in the state.

The contentious survey report, tabled before the cabinet on Friday, is set to be discussed by the cabinet on April 17 amid opposition to its implemention, with the Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders calling the exercise “unscientific”.

Following the meeting, Shivakumar said, “As a representative of the community, I would like to discuss with our legislators on how to present the community’s case in the cabinet meeting scheduled on April 17 to exclusively discuss the report. I am not a know-all expert on this, I would like to seek the opinion and suggestions of seniors from the community. I will not talk about this before the media.”

Meanwhile, the Vokkaliga Sangha –– the apex body of the dominant community –– demanded the state government to reject the report and conduct a fresh survey.

“If this report is implemented, the Vokkaligas, Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Brahmins, and other communities that feel wronged will unite and protest,” the Sangha’s president Kenchappa Gowda said.

“These communities said the agitation should be like a Karnataka-wide bandh. We will have to show our strength. Implementing this report will cause injustice to all our communities,” he further said.

Calling on the ministers and legislators, especially from the ruling Congress, belonging to the Vokkaliga community to voice their opposition to the report, they said the Sangha has also planned to conduct its own survey of the community to determine its population, and has even prepared a software for it.

Sangha’s director Nelligere Babu said that they would like to send a message to chief minister Siddaramaiah that his government will collapse if it implemented the caste census report.

Findings of the survey allegedly contradicted the “traditional perception” regarding the numerical strength of various castes, especially the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

According to the survey report, reportedly estimates the population of the Lingayat community at 6,635,000 and the Vokkaliga community population is said to be at 6,158,000.

Veerashaiva-Lingayats too through their apex body, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, have expressed similar reservations about the report and are contemplating similar measures.

Both communities have alleged that various sub-castes have been divided among different categories of OBC, resulting in a decrease in their respective populations. They have alleged that many households were left out from the survey.

Congress MLC Nagraj Yadav too expressed his reservation, saying that Yadava or Golla community has been divided under various categories of OBC, bringing down the community’s population to 1 million, which according to him should be about 2.5-3 million.

Meanwhile, leaders and organisations Dalits and OBCs among others have defended the report and questioned how it could be called “unscientific” without any discussion and deliberation at the cabinet.

According to the survey report, out of the total 5.98 crore citizens covered under the survey carried out in 2015, about 70% or 4.16 crore (41.6 million) come under various OBC categories.

The commission has recommended increasing the OBC quota from the current 32% to 51%, according to officials familiar with the matter.

As per the report, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) together seem to form the largest social block in the state with their population at 15.2 million,they said.

As per the report, the population of Muslims, who alone come under Category-2B of OBC, is 75.25 lakh (7.525 million), and they have been recommended 8% reservation from existing 4.

The general category population stood at 29.74 lakh (2.974 million), they said.

Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra alleged that chief minister Siddaramaiah was trying to create division in society with the caste census, aimed at protecting his own “political interests”, as the time had come for him to resign.

Criticising the report, Union minister HD Kumaraswamy said, “What is it really — a caste census or a census of hate? Is this so-called census a conspiracy designed to deliberately provoke unrest in the state? Or is it merely a diversionary tactic to deflect attention from the embarrassment caused by relentless price hikes and a series of corruption scandals?”

The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government (2013-2018) had in 2015 commissioned the survey in the state. The report was submitted on February 29 last year.

With inputs from PTI