Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Wednesday backed demands to introduce reservations in the private sector.
“We demand that there should be reservation even in the private sector. Not just in government set-up but also in private,” he said during his speech after unveiling former backward classes commission chairman, L.G. Havanur’s statue in Bengaluru.
The statement of the 77-year-old chief minister, who is conducting a second socio-economic and educational survey in Karnataka, came shortly after that of Professor Ravi Varma Kumar, former Advocate General of Karnataka. Kumar alleged that communities that were opposing social justice for oppressed classes were the ones enjoying benefits of the same injustice.
That was the reason, Kumar said, that Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had refused to take part in the ongoing survey. “Now, you have to understand who are the people opposing the survey and why,” Kumar said.
“To conduct the survey, teachers went to eminent industrialist Infosys founder Narayana Murthy’s home. He did not respond himself and said that you will not include us in backward classes. Why I say this is because this man has opposed reservation all his life. All of you should note this. The people who are against social justice are beneficiaries of this inequality. They are not ready to let this go,” Kumar said.
Karnataka was among the first to conduct a caste-based census as Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar had set up the Miller commission in 1919.
The Congress party, under Rahul Gandhi, had championed the cause of a nationwide caste census, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a caste enumeration,
Siddaramaiah said that his attempts to conduct the caste census was part of an effort to remove inequality in society and also hinted at increasing the reservation ceiling.
“Now the 50 percent reservation from the Indira Sahani case, I am trying to increase it to 70-75 percent. Everyone should get justice,” Siddaramaiah said.
Siddaramaiah had commissioned a socio-economic and educational survey in 2014 but did not accept the report on account of opposition from within his own party, including from his deputy D.K. Shivakumar. It expired last year and the Congress government in Karnataka has commissioned a second such survey.
‘Foundation for AHINDA’
The CM’s statements were made after the unveiling of the statue of Havanur, whose report first recommended reservation for backward classes. Commonly referred to as the “architect of affirmative action policies” in Karnataka, the Havanur commission report was submitted to the then state government five decades ago.
“On 8 August 1972, D. Devaraj Urs set up the Havanur commission. After that in 1975, on 19 November, on the day Indira Gandhi was born, we celebrated the golden jubilee of Havanur commission. Until then, the Nagangouda commission report was not accepted and this (Havanur) report became the first,” Siddaramaiah said Wednesday.
Siddaramaiah also said that Urs had called this report the ‘Bible’ for backward classes.
Havnur’s report was the first to introduce reservations in Karnataka with 32 percent for backward classes within Hindus, and 13 percent for Muslims, totalling 45 percent.
Since then, there have been multiple such commissions in Karnataka, including an ongoing socio-economic and educational survey—the second such exercise under Siddaramaiah’s term as chief minister.
The CM, who hails from the Kuruba community—traditionally shepherds—said that the Havanur commission report was opposed and challenged in courts and even on the streets, but it prevailed as it laid the foundation for such surveys.
The Havanur commission report had recommended free hostels, setting up a finance corporation for backward classes, scholarships, tuition fee exemptions and other provisions which continue to this day.
Havanur is widely credited as the person who laid the foundation for AHINDA (Kannada acronym for backward classes, minorities and Dalits) which was later popularised by Urs and now Siddaramaiah.
‘Havanur’s work undone by Ramakrishna Hegde’
Havanur was born in February 1927 in Rannebennur in the then undivided Dharwad district. He hailed from the Valmiki community, classified as Scheduled Tribe (ST). He served as an assistant professor of law in Bengaluru, advocate in the high court, chairman of the backward classes commission, Rajya Sabha member and Minister for Law, Social Welfare, Backward Classes from 1978 to 1980 under the Urs’ second stint as CM.
Kumar said that Havanur’s life was shaped by the experiences he had and the discrimination he faced.
Kumar, who also worked as Havanur’s junior, said that Havanur had been subjected to caste-based discrimination since the very beginning.
Havanur helped draft South Africa’s Constitution, and was part of the Mandal commission. But soon after Havanur submitted the report, one legislator burnt the report on the floor of the house, while many hit the streets protesting reservation.
Urs, who implemented the report, soon lost power and was succeeded by two Brahmin CMs—Gundu Rao and Ramakrishna Hegde.
Kumar said that during the Hegde government, the CM included 25 percent of those who were believed to be upper castes into the reservation or backward classes list.
“The same 25 percent are the ones who are opposed to the ongoing caste survey. Till date, there was no effort to remove them from the list. On 13-10-1986 Ramakrishna Hegde passed the order that it was a decade since the Havanur commission report was out and that he had ordered a fresh one and asked that the additional 25 percent remain in the backward classes list,” he said.
He added that it was the same people who had opposed and even burnt the Havanur commission report who were now demanding better reservation classification for their respective communities.
‘Dalits joining RSS for selfish reasons’
Siddaramaiah said that he too faced discrimination because he was from the Kuruba community. The CM said that Havanur had argued the case when Siddaramaiah went to court to challenge his 1991 Lok Sabha loss in Koppala.
The CM recalled a newspaper article when he first became the finance minister.
“An article from Lankesh Patrike questioned how a person who cannot count 100 sheep can become the finance minister of Karnataka. I took it up as a challenge and have since presented 16 budgets and will present my 17th next,” Siddaramaiah said.
The CM went on to say that even exploited communities were joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates for “selfish reasons”.
“There are Dalits who praise RSS philosophy even though they are exploited,” Siddaramaiah said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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