Will cabinet take a call on caste census, Greater Bengaluru Authority?
caste census
.Besides, they are also expected to discuss the govt's proposal to set up a special task force to prevent communal flare-ups in the coastal districts, a decision that comes in the wake of the murder of pro-Hindu activist and rowdy sheeter Suhas Shetty.
It coincides with a BJP delegation meeting governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot, seeking his intervention in "restoring" law and order in these districts and action against assembly speaker UT Khader for "controversial" remarks about the murder case."The govt's proposal of a special force is aimed at protecting anti-social elements who are on a spree killing pro-Hindu activists," said N Ravikumar, BJP chief whip in the legislative council. "The speaker's remarks supporting the suspected murderer's family is evidence of this. Only the governor's intervention can resolve this issue."The cabinet is also expected to schedule the 'appointed day' when the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act will come into force and declare the geographical area of Greater Bengaluru.But the focus will remain firmly on the caste census, especially with the Centre announcing a national caste census. Lingayats and Vokkaligas, the two politically dominant communities in the state, have objected to the state report and have called for it to be scrapped. Both contend that their respective population figures have been deliberately undercounted, while figures of some "select" communities have been inflated.Chief minister Siddaramaiah had convened a special cabinet meeting on April 11 to deliberate on the report, but that meeting ended inconclusive. "The govt is aware of all concerns regarding the caste census," said law and parliamentary affairs minister HK Patil. "While these concerns are largely about population numbers, there is no dispute about the socio-economic and educational assessment. The cabinet will discuss all these aspects before taking a decision."However, the govt faces a challenge since other backward classes (OBCs), including Kurubas, want the report to be implemented, even while Lingayats and Vokkaligas have collaborated to ensure the report is shelved. Six Lingayat ministers led by forest minister Eshwar Khandre met last week and resolved to unitedly oppose the report. Meanwhile, the Vokkaligara Sangha wrote to the CM, urging him to scrap the report.Along with Vokkaligas and Lingayats, other communities such as Brahmins, Vaisyas, Bunts and Kodavas have also expressed concerns about their population figures. "The report is lopsided," said B Kenchappa Gowda, Vokkaligara Sangha president. "It shows the population of certain communities have increased by a staggering 74% to 1400%, while the population of Vokkaligas, Lingayats, Brahmins, Vaisyas and others have been undercounted. This is unacceptable."So far, Siddaramaiah has remained firm and has even suggested that he will base the next state budget on the census report. The census cost the state exchequer Rs 162 crore.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
24 minutes ago
- Indian Express
In Rajasthan village, locals say power, water cut for asking minister tough questions during visit
After Rajasthan Cabinet Minister Joraram Kumawat faced 'uncomfortable' questions from some locals in his constituency during a programme, locals have alleged that officials were sent to their village Sunday to disconnect their water and electricity connections allegedly for embarrassing the minister. On Saturday, Kumawat, the cabinet minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Gopalan and Devasthan departments had reached the Panchayat Bhawan in Gurdai in his Assembly constituency Sumerpur in Pali district for the foundation stone and inauguration of several development projects. However, citing dirty roads in the village, some locals started questioning the minister. They said that the construction of roads had not started and this had led to dirt and filth. Some of the minister's supporters and local public representatives tried to intervene and said that the minister had other engagements, further enraging the locals and the minister left without giving an address. On Sunday, local officials from water and electricity departments were allegedly sent to cut connections in Gurdai. In one of the viral videos, a local is heard saying that; 'Yesterday, we village residents had kept our issues before Minister Joraram and today, he has sent a PHED team to cut connections and trouble us'. Talking to The Indian Express, the man behind the video, advocate Kiran Kumar Meena, 23, said that: 'I am a common man … We have a dhani (hutment) of about 200 homes of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. When the honourable minister came yesterday, we wanted to tell him that the roof of our local school is leaking, that we don't have a CC (cement concrete) road and wanted to give him a memorandum. However, the minister and his supporters did not take our memorandum and pushed us out, saying that he has another engagement'. It was given a political angle, he claimed. 'Sunday morning, teams were sent to cut water and electricity connections claiming that we had illegal connections. We have taken connections at home, how is it illegal? If you think it's illegal, give us notice. We have had a water connection for five years,' Meena said, adding that he was the main target 'as I had the memorandum and I was speaking (before the minister)'. 'I am merely fighting for my rights. And fighting for my rights is my right too,' he said, 'The electricity department officials too said that my connection is illegal. I said that I pay my bills and it is my 45-year-old ancestral home. The police officials also said that this is a BJP government and if you are going to protest in this manner before a minister then you will be sent to jail.' He went on to say: 'But if we won't tell our minister then whom will we tell? The minister should know that if he has become the minister, he should help people instead of sending officials after us and showing power in this manner'. He said that he is being targeted by local BJP local leaders 'because we are SC, STs and so they think we are Congress leaning, but we are just common citizens and we are following what Babsaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar told us'. Terming the action as 'BJP's dictatorship' and sharing the video of the incident, the Congress party said Sunday: 'Today, on the minister's orders, the electricity and water connections of the villagers are being cut off. They are being punished for asking questions.' Meena said he had recorded the video 'because BJP workers and government officials had been mentally torturing me since yesterday. So, I recorded a video to protect myself.' He said that eventually, as more and more locals gathered in his support, the concerned engineers left the spot, without disconnecting anything, and after getting calls from their seniors. Minister Kumawat could not be reached for comments. On Saturday, he had said that some Congress workers had entered and opposed him at the inauguration programme but that he had given instructions to officials to clean the roads in question and draw up a proposal to construct the roads too. On the accusations against the district administration, District Collector Laxmi Narain Mantri said, 'talk to the honourable minister', and added, 'We are administrative officers; we do what is due to us.' Meanwhile, Lok Sabha MP Hanuman Beniwal, smarting from electricity disconnection at his Nagaur residence — registered in the name of his brother – over unpaid dues, Sunday shared a bill purportedly showing unpaid electricity dues of Energy Minister Heeralal Nagar. According to the online bill copy shared by the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) supremo, Nagar owes as much as Rs 2.17 lakh to Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited. 'Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at others,' Beniwal said. Minister Nagar did not respond to calls.
The Hindu
35 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Not foreigners, Biharis will decide fate of Bihar: BJP
The BJP on Sunday (July 13, 2025) slammed the Opposition parties for raising questions on the ongoing scrutiny of electoral rolls in Bihar and said only 'Biharis' will decide the fate of the State in the upcoming Assembly polls, not foreigners or illegal immigrants. The criticism came the same day officials said that field agents of the Election Commission have found "a large number of people" from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in their house-to-house visits, made as part of the ongoing intensive review of the voter list in Bihar. They asserted that the names of illegal migrants will not be included in the final electoral roll, to be published on September 30. A proper enquiry of such people will be conducted after August 1. Asked for comment, BJP national spokesperson and former Union Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told PTI Videos, "None of those who are residents of Bihar and valid voters in the state are facing any problem with the electoral rolls' revision." But illegal immigrants and foreigners like those from Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh cannot be included in the voter list, the BJP leader said. "Biharis will decide the fate of Bihar by casting their votes, not citizens of other countries," he added. Another BJP national spokesperson, Shehzad Poonawalla, hit out at the Congress and the RJD, alleging that illegal immigrants from various countries were "brought and settled down" during their rule in the past. "They were provided with all kinds of identity cards. Now they are being weeded being ensured that only Indian citizens avail the right to vote as per the Constitution," he told PTI Videos. But Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav are trying to "build pressure" on the Election Commission by spreading "lies" about the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar, Mr. Poonawalla alleged. "They talk about saving the Constitution, but they want to provide voting rights to foreigners and intruders whom they had brought and settled down during their (parties') is their mindset," he said, and accused the Congress and the RJD of keeping their "vote bank policy" above the Constitution.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
Inside The Deportation Files: How A Secretive Website Became Trump's Weapon Against Pro-Palestinian Students
Washington: It began with a name. Then a photo. A quote taken out of context. Before they knew it, dozens of young people, many of them students, found themselves flagged, surveilled and pulled into a silent war most Americans had never heard of. Inside a Washington courtroom, the mask slipped. A Homeland Security officer revealed what activists had long whispered. That the U.S. government was using Canary Mission, a controversial pro-Israel website, to identify and deport student protesters who dared speak out for Palestine. Peter Hatch, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stood before a federal judge and admitted that ICE had created a special 'tiger team'. Its job? To comb through the roughly 5,000 dossiers Canary Mission had compiled on critics of Israel. Hatch said many leads came to them verbally. But yes, some began with the Canary list. 'You mean someone said, 'Here is a list that the Canary Mission has put together?'' the judge asked. 'Yes,' Hatch replied. For activists and civil liberties advocates, that one word felt like an earthquake. It confirmed what had long been suspected that the Trump administration was working hand in glove with a website many describe as a hate group. One that publishes names, photos, affiliations and even social media posts of individuals it deems 'anti-Israel'. Those targeted often find the profile linked to their name on search engines. For many, it becomes the top result. For some, it becomes the reason they lose job offers, receive threats or face deportation. Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York, did not mince words. 'Canary Mission is a doxxing site. Its only purpose is to target and harass people, mostly students, who dare to speak up for Palestinian rights. That the U.S. government is using a website like this is absurd. It is fascist,' she told Al Jazeera. The crackdown had already begun. After returning to office, Trump wasted no time. Executive orders were signed in January laying the groundwork. One memo instructed federal officials to monitor international students and staff for 'anti-Semitic activity'. In March, Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil became the first public case. A U.S. permanent resident married to a citizen, he was suddenly declared a national security concern. The State Department ordered him deported. The justification? His political views, specifically his opposition to Israeli policies. He was not the only one. Dozens more were quietly arrested. Some were given a choice – leave on your own or stay and face indefinite detention. Some, like Khalil, are fighting in court. One student, Rumeysa Ozturk, had no arrest record. No violent protests. No links to extremist groups. Her 'crime'? Co-authoring an op-ed in her university paper supporting a student-led divestment resolution. That alone landed her on Canary Mission's radar and later in ICE custody. Behind this purge lies an older playbook. A document circulated before the 2024 elections, titled 'Project Esther', laid it out in detail. Drafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, it called for identifying student visa holders and professors critical of Israel, with Canary Mission cited repeatedly. The authors believed those activists represented a threat to America's alliance with Israel. Andrew Ross, a professor at NYU, while talking to Al Jazeera, called the campaign a 'witch hunt'. 'I am on Canary Mission. So are many of my colleagues. What they do is cherry-pick anything they can twist and make it sound like anti-Semitism. The site exists to ruin lives,' he said. He said the profiles often cite things as basic as sharing Amnesty International reports. 'They want to stigmatise anyone who supports Palestinian rights.' The reach of Canary Mission extends beyond U.S. borders. In 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli border officers used the site to bar entry to certain activists. That same year, The Forward traced the group's funding to an Israeli nonprofit called Megamot Shalom. American Jewish charities also reportedly funnelled money toward it. But no one knows who runs the site. Its authors are anonymous. Its servers are private. Its methods are opaque. 'This is not just some blog. It is designed for maximum harm. And when governments start using it? That is dangerous,' Ross said. Canary Mission claims it does not fabricate information. But critics say its design is the point. The search engine optimisation. The guilt-by-association. The sinister framing of ordinary dissent as radicalism. And now, the U.S. government is quietly turning to even more extreme corners. At the same court hearing where Hatch admitted to using Canary Mission, he hinted at another site. When asked if it might be Betar, a militant right-wing group linked to Kahanist violence, Hatch said, 'That sounds right.' For rights groups, it is a terrifying escalation. 'This is not immigration enforcement. It is ideological cleansing,' said Palestine Legal in a statement. Even J Street, a moderate pro-Israel lobby, condemned the move. 'Canary Mission is feeding the Trump agenda – weaponising antisemitism to deport student activists. This is about silencing dissent.' The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment. So did the State Department, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said publicly, 'If you come to stir up trouble, we will deny your visa. If you already have one, we will revoke it.' For now, the blacklists continue to grow. The court battles are ongoing. And a generation of students finds itself caught between a silent database and the full power of the U.S. government. They protested for Palestine. Now they are fighting for the right to stay in the country they once called home.
