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The Print
2 days ago
- Politics
- 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'
India Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Karnataka Cabinet orders caste re-survey within 90 days citing 10-year gap
The Karnataka Cabinet has unanimously decided to conduct a fresh Socio-Economic and Education Survey report, often referred to as the 'Karnataka caste census', citing the expiry of the ten-year period since the last such exercise. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah confirmed the decision following a Cabinet meeting that deliberated exclusively on the recommendations of the state's Backward Classes Commission, which had submitted its final report earlier this explained that the original survey was launched during his previous tenure as Chief Minister in 2015 and was carried out between April 11 and May 30 of that year. 'On 57 grounds we visited the houses and conducted the survey and submitted the survey,' he said, noting that around 1.6 lakh personnel were involved. The survey covered 5.98 crore people, a figure close to the projected population of 6.3 crore for 2015, up from 6.11 crore in the 2011 added that the recommendations were finalised by 2018, but due to a change in government and subsequent political decisions, the report was not accepted. 'In 2018, our party lost and I tendered the resignation. There was a coalition government. JDS chief Kumaraswamy was the new Chief Minister. The report was completed by then. C Puttarangashetty was then commissioner. Kumarswamy insisted not to take the report,' Siddaramaiah After the tenure of H Kantharaj, who chaired the earlier commission in 2015, Jayaprakash Hegde was appointed to lead the body, with BJP-appointed members forming the rest of the panel. The final recommendations, based on the Kantharaj report, were submitted on February 29, 2024. However, with the Model Code of Conduct in force due to the Lok Sabha elections, the Cabinet could not take it up until after the said that senior Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala, held consultations with him and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on the matter. 'They suggested the report was prepared and ready in 2015. It's been 10 years already. According to the Backward Classes Act 1995, it's very clear that a new survey is to be conducted after 10 years,' he Section 11 of Clause 1 of the Act, Siddaramaiah said the Cabinet decided that the time had legally come to undertake a new exercise. 'We did not bow down to the high command. We are taking this decision according to the law,' he said. He also reiterated that Kumaraswamy had previously refused to receive the report and had even threatened Puttarangashetty. The BJP government that followed also did not accept the that the report has formally been received and reviewed, the Cabinet has decided to authorise the commission to conduct a new survey within 90 Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said, 'The Chief Minister has already explained the decision taken in the Cabinet. It's clear—this is about the backward classes section. Once in 10 years, such things need to be revisited. The original survey was conducted from April 11, 2015, to May 30, 2015, and now it's already 10 years old.'He added that the survey would reflect current socio-economic realities, as population patterns, education levels, and public demands had changed. 'We want to do justice to everyone,' he said. Shivakumar also noted that the Backward Classes Commission would be given three months to complete the task and that the process would be made accessible online, allowing participation from Kannadigas residing in other states.'I don't want to comment on anything specific—this is a 10-year-old issue, and it needs to be addressed now,' Shivakumar said. IN THIS STORY#Karnataka
