Mallikarjun Kharge puts Siddaramaiah in a spot over SC survey, calls inclusion of OBC group ‘unfair'

Indian Express

20-05-2025

The All India Congress Committee (AICC)'s president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday raised concerns over the ongoing survey of the Scheduled Caste (SC) sub-castes in Karnataka being carried out by the Siddaramaiah-led party government, saying that the inclusion of the Beda Jangama group in the SC list would be against the interest of the Dalit community.
Kharge's criticism came at a public rally held at Hospet in Vijayanagar district to mark the second anniversary of the Congress government in the state. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, CM Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar were also present at the event.
Noting that the Siddaramaiah government has taken steps to implement sub-quotas for the SC communities, Kharge pointed to the inclusion of the Beda Jangama group among the SC communities, saying that it belonged to the Lingayat community listed as part of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state.
'We will support the poor of the Lingayat community and support them. But, after including Beda Jangamas in the SC list, how did their numbers grow from just 500 to around four to five lakh now,' the Congress chief said in a question pointed at the Siddaramaiah government.
'This is unfair. If Beda Jangamas are included among the SCs, it will go against the untouchable SCs,' Kharge said, asking whether the move was allegedly aimed at 'taking away the rights of the SCs one by one'.
'To help the people, internal SC reservation is being introduced by the state government. At this juncture, if attempts are being made to fail this by including other castes then it will neither help the state nor the country,' Kharge added.
According to the socio-economic and educational survey or caste survey – conducted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) in 2015-2017 during Siddaramaiah's first tenure as the CM – the Beda Jangama group has been included among both the Lingayat and SC communities.
As per the caste survey, Beda Jangamas classified under the Lingayat category numbered 50,242, while those from the group under the SC category numbered 3.82 lakh. Dalits account for 19% population of Karnataka.
The row has stemmed from the charge that many Beda Jangamas listed under the Lingayat category were allegedly issued 'fake SC caste certificates' in parts of North Karnataka because of sharing a common caste name.
Last November, the Siddaramiah government constituted the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission on internal reservation for the SCs.
Kharge's remarks came even as this Commission is supervising a state-wide survey of the SC sub-castes being carried out by the government since May 5. The internal SC survey is based on the Commission's interim report submitted to the government last month, which found that there was no empirical data on various SC sub-castes including the SC(left), SC(right), touchables and others.
Kharge also warned the government that the KSCBC's caste survey report, which is currently being discussed by the Siddaramaiah Cabinet, would 'cause problems in the entire state if the exercise was carried out just to take credit'. 'I want to say something clearly. Do the survey. But it should be done properly and Rahul Gandhi should not get a bad name out of this,' he said.
At its last meeting on May 9, the Siddaramaiah Cabinet had again deferred any decision on the caste survey to facilitate more extensive discussions among the ministers on the issue.
In the April 18 special Cabinet meeting, Siddaramaiah directed all his 34 ministers to provide their opinions on the report in writing for a thorough discussion.
However, only about 12 ministers have given their opinions so far. There is a strong push from the Congress's OBC leaders for the government to accept the report which indicates that 70% of the state population belongs to the OBCs.
There has however been resistance from the state's dominant communities like Lingayats and Vokkaligas – and their leaders including those in the Congress – to the caste survey, which has put their populations to be 13.6% and 12.2% – lesser than their estimated populations of 15% and 17% respectively.