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Pahalgam terror attack: Rahul Gandhi reaches Kashmir to meet injured people
Gandhi is likely to visit the Army's Base Hospital in Badamibagh Cantonment here to enquire about the health of those injured in the attack on April 22 that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead
Press Trust of India Srinagar
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday arrived in Kashmir to meet those injured in the Pahalgam terror attack, a Congress leader said.
The party leader said Gandhi is likely to visit the Army's Base Hospital in Badamibagh Cantonment here to enquire about the health of those injured in the attack on April 22 that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead.
Several people were injured in the attack.
Gandhi would also meet various delegations, including from party, and trade and tourism sectors, the leader said.
He said the LoP is likely to have individual meetings with Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Gandhi has come with a message of "healing the wounds" of the people of the country, including Kashmiris, in the wake of the attack and its aftermath.
The Congress leader cut short his visit to the United States to attend the crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee that was called on Thursday in the aftermath of the attack.
He also attended an all-party meeting called by the government to brief parties on the horrific terror attack.
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The Print
an hour 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
4 hours ago
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After high command diktat, Karnataka government junks caste census report, to go for fresh survey
Karnataka's cabinet on Thursday decided to conduct a fresh socio-educational survey of various castes in the state and not to implement the recommendations of the previous survey–popularly called the caste census–conducted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. The decision came after the Congress high command met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday, after which the party leadership asked Siddaramaiah to go for a 're-enumeration' of the populations of the different castes in the state. The diktat from the high command came when the chief minister was on the verge of having his cabinet clear the recommendations of the survey report in a special cabinet meeting held on Thursday. Siddaramaiah, who announced the decision at a news conference, referred to a provision under the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act to defend the fresh survey. As per Section 11, Clause 1 of the Act, the findings of the Socio-economic and Education Survey carried out in 2015 would be invalid as 10 years had passed since then. 'The State Government may at any time, and shall, at the expiration of ten years from the coming into force of this Act and every succeeding period of ten years thereafter, undertake revision of the lists with a view to excluding from such lists those classes who have ceased to be backward classes or for including in such lists, new backward classes,' the clause reads. 'The provision is very clear,' Siddaramaiah said, adding '…the cabinet, considering these clauses, has decided that since the commission conducted the survey 10 years ago, we will ask the commission to go for a fresh survey.' Responding to queries, the chief minister said the modalities of the exercise would be announced soon but the survey would be completed in a 90-day time frame. The recommendations of the survey report–such as shifting Kurubas from Category 2A (Other Backward Classes) to Category 1 (Backward Castes), enhancing reservation for Muslims under the 2B category from four to eight per cent, enhancing reservation for the 3A and 3B categories, which include the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, from existing four and five per cent to seven and eight per cent, respectively–will now be scrapped. The re-survey is considered a setback for the chief minister, who had along with senior ministers such as Satish Jarkiholi and H C Mahadevappa pushed for the implementation of the survey. At the same time, the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities and their leaders had cast apprehensions on the survey and publicly opposed its findings. Sources say that Shivakumar had opposed the report in the cabinet meeting held on June 5 and flew to Delhi earlier this week seeking the intervention of the high command. 'Both Vokkaligas and Lingayats teaming up due to the report would not augur well for the party in the next elections,' an aide close to Shivakumar said, claiming it to be the reason for the Vokkaliga leader to lobby against the report. Apart from that, prominent Lingayat leaders too are learnt to have complained to the Congress high command about the 'complications' the report would create if its recommendations were to be implemented. Siddaramaiah commissioned the survey in 2015 during his first tenure as chief minister and it was accepted by the state cabinet in April this caste re-survey, Karnataka caste census, re-enumeration of castes, Siddaramaiah, Vokkaliga, Lingayat, D K Shivakumar
The Hindu
4 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.
