Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Congress state president D.K.Shivakumar has joined Vokkaliga leaders to bat for a fresh ‘caste census’, a demand that may put Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on a sticky wicket.
Though the findings of the 2015 socio-economic and educational survey was not released, leaked data from the report indicate much lower population of Lingayats and Vokkaligas than what’s commonly believed. If released, the report could bolster Siddaramaiah’s backward caste politics but end up undermining the clout of Lingayat and Vokkaliga leaders.
Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga himself, acknowledged to the media that he is one of the signatories to a letter demanding for a fresh caste census to be conducted in Karnataka.
The letter in question was written by the Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha, which requested Siddarmaiah that the 2015 report be rejected.
Apart from Shivakumar, H.D.Deve Gowda, S.M.Krishna, D.V. Sadananada Gowda, Shobha Karandlaje, H.D.Kumaraswamy from the BJP, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress are the other signatories. ThePrint has seen the letter.
“Politicians from various communities have been rallying around this issue. Similarly, I have to wear the community hat and participate in apolitical meetings organised by the community. Is it wrong?” Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
“Many communities are fighting for proportional reservation. Scheduled castes, Panchamasalis, Veerashaivas and Vokkaligas are all fighting. These demands are cutting across party lines. However, certain communities have said that they have not been contacted before the census and hence are demanding for a scientific caste census,” he added.
Leaked findings of the 2015 report indicates that the percentage of the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas were down from what was believed to be 17 and 14 percent to below 10 percent.
Lingayats and Vokkaligas leaders fear that the report, if released, will strengthen Siddaramaiah’s grip on backward classes politics while weakening the stature of the likes of Shivakumar within his own caste group.
Though the Congress has proposed a nation-wide caste census, the Karnataka government has kept details of the 2015 exercise under wraps to prevent any backlash from dominant communities, according to people aware of the developments.
The Siddaramaiah government has been in a fix over the release of the caste census since the ruling party is wary of how dominant communities like Vokkaligas and Lingayats will react to the findings, ThePrint reported in August.
Siddaramaiah has struggled with more opposition from within his own party in releasing the findings of the caste census. The chief minister, a Kuruba, meanwhile, pursues AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) and challenges the dominant caste theory in Karnataka.
There are eight Lingayats in Siddaramaiah’s 34-member cabinet, five Vokkaligas, six from the Scheduled Caste community, and three belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. There are two each from the Kuruba and Muslim communities, one Brahmin, and the rest belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
On Wednesday, BJP’s Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, a Panchamasali, questioned why action was not taken against officials of the state backward classes commission for the irregularities in submitting the report. The firebrand legislator from Vijayapura was referring to the letter written by the commission on 5 October that the original copy of the report was misplaced.
In his letter, dated 22 November, and addressed to backward classes panel chief Jayaprakash Hegde, Yatnal questioned the irregularities in the department.
“On the face of it, losing the original copy of the socio economic & educational survey that was conducted by spending around Rs 180 crore, seems like a premeditated conspiracy. Even though the original copy was lost, there has not been one complaint from you or your department’s officials in any police complaint,” he wrote.
The caste survey sought to capture granular data with 55 questions, including those to determine the number of castes, their composition, reservation status and benefits received, and their social, political and economic standing, among others.
According to people aware of the developments, there were 1,361 castes, sub-castes and synonyms before the 2015 survey and this number has gone up significantly.
“We are finalising the report,” Hegde told ThePrint on Wednesday. He did not divulge any more details.
Caste matrix in state
The Vokkaligas and the Lingayats are arguably the two most dominant communities, occupying the highest offices and largest chunk of political, social and economic reservation based on its perceived size. There, however, has been no caste census since 1931 to lend credibility to these claims.
Reservation is a touchy subject in Karnataka and any attempt to meddle with dominant communities has often led to severe political and social ramifications.
In 2018, the Congress government lost power after it accorded a minority religion status to the Lingayats. Though this was a long-standing demand from the community, the move to distinguish between the Veerashaivas and the Lingayats was projected by the BJP as an attempt to break the ‘Hindu society’.
Similarly, the BJP government lost power in the May assembly election after the ruling party was projected to have ignored senior Lingayat leaders. The BJP had carved out two new categories within the state backward classes list to placate the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas by removing the Muslims from the backward classes list.
(Edited by Tony Rai)