Caste survey report to be taken up by Karnataka cabinet today
Congress MLA TB Jayachandra, law minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet when the survey was commissioned in 2015, said that politically and socially the situation has changed in the last decade
The Karnataka cabinet, chaired by chief minister Siddaramaiah, will take up the socio-economic and education survey, popularly known as caste census report, for deliberation during a special meeting scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on Thursday.
People familiar with the matter said the meeting will be held in the afternoon as the Congress has organised a protest meeting against the Centre’s over the rising prices of fuel and essential commodities and also to counter the BJP’s Jan Aakrosh (people’s anger) rally on the Congress government hiking the milk, water and power rates.
Siddaramaiah’s economic adviser Basavaraj Rayaraddi said: “No final decision will be taken in Thursday’s meeting. The CM is not in a hurry, he will buy time to study and implement the report.’’
“The way developments are happening, indications are the chief minister will accept the report and is prepared for its fall-out,’’ a confidant of the CM said.
The Vokkaliga community has expressed its discontent over the report in a meeting convened by deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday, during which it warned of a state-wide agitation by enlisting the support of the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Brahmins. The All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha headed by senior Congress MLA Shamnur Shivashankarappa has called a meeting of all its community ministers and legislators on Thursday at 9 am.
He opposed the report saying: “Whether those heading the government can continue their reign, facing opposition from Veershaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. My community is upset that it has been split into Veerashaiva Lingayat and Lingayat to undermine their importance.”
Congress MLA TB Jayachandra, who was the law minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet when the survey was commissioned in 2015, said that politically and socially the situation has changed in the last decade. “Caste was one among the 54 parameters that were given for the survey. None are looking into what have been the findings of the 53 parameters with the focus being only on caste data,” he said.
Another Congress MLA, who attended the Vokkaliga legislators’ meeting on Tuesday, said the ministers representing the community were told to be articulate at the cabinet meeting and oppose the report.
To counter the opposition from the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities to the report, Congress leaders representing the other backward classes have supported the implementation. Former minister HM Revanna, representing the Kuruba community, said no caste census has been done in Karnataka after 1931. Rural development and panchayat raj minister Priyank Kharge reacting to the dominant castes opposing the report said: “This is not a caste census report. If there are any lacuna in the report, they can be redressed. Why this hurry to oppose?’’
Among the key communities, the survey enumerated 6.63 million (11.09%) Lingayats and 6.16 million (10.31%) Vokkaligas. According to the report, reservations for categories 3A and 3B, to which the two groups belong, will be 8% and 7% respectively. In contrast, the Kurubas, Siddaramaiah’s community, are shown as comprising 7.5% (4,271,000). The commission has recommended an increase the reservation for Lingayats from 4% to 8% and for the Vokkaligas from 3% to 7%.
The survey conducted by then Backward Classes Commission chairman H Kantharaju was put on the backburner by successive governments. Former chairman of the commission K Jayaprakash Hegde, who fine tuned the report before submitting to the government in February 2024, said any drawbacks in the report can always be rectified. “The Kantharaj commission gave data on the parameters and during my tenure as chairman, I appointed an expert committee to classify the castes and give weightage to the indicators,’’ he added. According to him each caste was claiming that their population was above 10 million. “Karnataka’s population is 6.30 crore (6,300 million) and the survey has data for 5.98 crore (59.8 million). If each community claims they are above one crore what should be Karnataka’s population?’’ he asked.
State BJP president BY Vijayendra in a post on X reminded Siddaramaiah that there is no provision in the Constitution to provide reservation on the basis of religion. “In reality you are the one who is leading the effort to create a rift between religions and sow hatred in the state. you are setting fire to the garden of peace for all races envisioned by poet-laureate Kuvempu,’’ he said quoting PM Narendra Modi.
