Karnataka to redo caste survey amid concerns about data accuracy
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that a fresh caste survey will be carried out in the state, The New Indian Express reported.
The new enumeration exercise will be conducted to address complaints from several communities who alleged that they were either excluded or underrepresented in the survey, the Hindustan Times quoted the chief minister as saying. The caste survey is expected to be completed within 90 days.
In April, the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey report prepared by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes was accepted by the Cabinet. The data for this survey was collected by the commission in 2015, during Siddaramaiah's earlier tenure as chief minister.
The findings had drawn criticism from several ministers, MPs and MLAs who claimed that the data did not represent the diverse caste composition of the state. The Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Karnataka's two dominant communities, had objected to the findings, demanding that the report be scrapped and a fresh survey conducted.
The survey had estimated that backward classes made up 70% of the population, Lingayats accounted for 11% and Vokkaligas were 10.2% of the population, The New Indian Express reported.
Siddaramaiah announced the fresh caste survey after meeting with the Congress leadership at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
'The report submitted on the caste census has been accepted in principle,' The New Indian Express quoted Siddaramaiah as saying on Tuesday. 'However, concerns were raised by some organisations, religious heads and a few ministers as the last survey was conducted in 2015.'
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who was also part of the meeting in New Delhi, said that the survey will be redone to allay the doubts about the sanctity of the data.
'Data will be collected through door-to-door and online surveys,' the newspaper quoted Shivakumar as saying. 'The process would be done in a very transparent manner. We will correct all concerns expressed about the previous caste census.'
The decision comes ahead of the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, during which details regarding the methodology and timeline of the re-enumeration will be finalised, the Hindustan Times reported.
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The Print
3 hours ago
- The Print
Siddaramaiah cites 1995 law to justify Congress high command's decision to scrap 2015 caste survey
He also said that the socio-economic and educational survey , better known as the caste survey, was over a decade old and needed to be re-enumerated even though his core support base of Backward Classes groups have been pressuring him to release the data. 'Already 10 years are over (and) according to section 11, clause 1 of the Backward Classes Act 1995, it is very clear that after the 10 years (sic) period, a new survey is to be conducted,' Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Thursday. Bengaluru: A day after the Congress tried to mask its decision to scrap the findings of the 2015 caste survey, Karnataka government Thursday cited clauses from the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995, to justify its high command's directive to do away with the report. 'In 10 years, the population has gone up, socio-economic and educational changes have happened. In the Backward Classes Commission Act, it is clearly mentioned that after 10 years a new survey needs to be undertaken,' he added. He was addressing the media after a special cabinet session was convened in Bengaluru to discuss the caste survey. On Tuesday, the Congress high command tried to find middle ground between Siddaramaiah and members of his cabinet opposed to the decision to release the findings of the 2015 survey. Political analysts and observers ThePrint spoke to suggested this decision reflects the party leadership's careful manoeuvring to reconcile differing–and confrontational–viewpoints within Karnataka, effectively diverting attention from the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede and prevent the Centre from taking credit for initiating the nationwide caste census. Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation K.C. Venugopal said Tuesday that the party accepts the 2015 caste survey in principle but also called for re-enumeration. The decision was viewed as a setback to Siddaramaiah who has advocated for long to address the dominant status enjoyed by groups like Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Insistence on conducting the entire exercise again is also perceived as a political maneuver for upstage Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement for a nationwide caste census. Also Read: How redoing Karnataka 'caste census' weakens CM Siddaramaiah without strengthening Shivakumar 'New survey to be conducted in 90 days' In 2015, during his first term as chief minister, Siddaramaiah formed a single-person panel comprising then Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSBCC) chairperson H. Kantharaj, which initiated work on the caste survey on 11 April that year. It completed the survey on 30 May, 2015—having put forth 54 questions to a total of 5.98 crore people or 94.17 percent of the state's population. But the report, which cost roughly Rs 190 crores, was never accepted as political leaders and seers from dominant communities are believed to have pressured the government to shelve it. Siddaramaiah did not accept the findings and the Congress was ousted from power three years later in 2018. He also did not pursue its coalition partner, Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S), to do the same in 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not want to accept the report since its then chief minister, B.S. Yediyurappa, was leading the agitation to scrap the findings. 'Let H.D. Kumaraswamy, B.Y. Vijayendra and R. Ashoka call for a press conference and announce they are in favour of the earlier caste census. They are making a lot of comments, we will respond to them in the Assembly session. The media must highlight contradictions in the stand of Opposition over caste census. They are trying to politicise it,' Shivakumar said Thursday. In February last year, Siddaramaiah accepted the report but did not open the files until earlier this year. When he did do it, and some of the findings were leaked, protests by so-called dominant communities intensified as the population numbers of these groups were shown to be significantly lower than what was projected earlier. Caste plays a very important role in Karnataka's politics and society. BJP is believed to have the backing of Lingayats while JD(S) depends on the Vokkaligas. The Congress under Siddaramaiah has been backed by AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits). Caste trumps party affiliations as Siddaramaiah's own cabinet ministers, including Shivakumar, M.B. Patil, S.S. Mallikarjun, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Eshwar Khandre and several others opposed the release of the report. Siddaramaiah is from the backward Kuruba community and his support base took aim at Shivakumar every time the latter would try to broach the unwritten pact that he would replace the former halfway through the term. Siddaramaiah camp further complicated matters for the party by promoting a narrative that replacing a chief minister from Backward Classes with Shivakumar, who is from a dominant community, could be politically unfavorable. 'Siddaramaiah and Congress used the Backward Classes for their political agenda and then sacrificed the latter. Siddaramaiah claims that he became CM with the support of AHINDA but has today shown that he will cheat the backward classes to remain in power,' R. Raghu Kautilya, president of Karnataka BJP's OBC morcha said Thursday. Shivakumar said the Congress was carrying out the survey again to further its objective of achieving social justice and not for the sake of politics. The state government said the new survey will be completed in 90 days of it being commissioned. (Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Karnataka protests 'ban' on its Totapuri mangoes entering AP, Naidu govt says 'rescue your own farmers'
Indian Express
6 hours ago
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After high command diktat, Karnataka government junks caste census report, to go for fresh survey
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The Hindu
6 hours ago
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BJP slams Congress over caste survey report, calls it political ploy to divert attention from stampede tragedy
The BJP on Wednesday described the Congress' decision to junk the Socio-economic and Educational Survey report – popularly known as the caste survey – as an effort to shift public attention from the stampede tragedy in which 11 people died during the victory celebrations of Indian Premier League champions Royal Challengers Bangalore. Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Mysuru MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar said that the survey conducted by the State Government was a wasteful, unscientific, and politically motivated exercise. 'The BJP had always opposed it on the grounds that it was unscientific, and the Congress, with its decision to junk the original report, has conceded that the report is flawed,' said Mr. Wadiyar. He also said that the Centre's planned caste-based census in 2026 would render any parallel State-level effort redundant, and urged the State Government to drop the move as it amounted to wastage of tax payers' money. 'The State Government has proved its incompetence in conducting such an exercise and since the Centre is already taking it up, there was no need for duplication of efforts,' said Mr. Wadiyar. That the decision to re-do the caste survey was taken by the Congress high command in Delhi, raises questions whether Karnataka is ruled by an elected government or office bearers of the All India Congress Committee, he added. 'It is not the Karnataka Cabinet or the people of the State who are taking these decisions – it is being dictated by unelected leaders in Delhi. Is it Rahul Gandhi and K.C. Venugopal who are running Karnataka?' he asked. Pointing out that more than ₹165 crore was spent over 10 years ago in preparing the report, Mr. Wadiyar said that people need to know how the Congress intends to compensate for it. Raghu Kautilya, BJP OBC Morcha State president echoed similar sentiments, and said that with the Congress in trouble in Karnataka over the stampede tragedy, the party leaders have chosen to discard the report to divert public attention and retain their posts. The Congress' move is a clear indicator that the party was prepared to jettison the interest of the backward classes to remain in power, said Mr. Raghu. He also challenged Congress leaders' claim that a new caste survey could be completed in 90 days. 'Is this serious governance or just another headline-grabbing move?' he asked. The BJP leaders said nearly ₹165 crore spent on the Kantharaj survey should be compensated to the tax payers and urged the State Government to focus on practical development issues rather than engaging in politically motivated census exercises.
