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New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
CM Siddaramaiah to lead show at Backwards Classes sammelan in Delhi
BENGALURU/DELHI: In what could be a game-changing political gambit, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is poised to take the national stage at a massive Backwards Classes sammelan in Delhi's Talkatora Stadium on July 25. The gathering, orchestrated by the AICC, comes on the heels of last week's Bengaluru convention, where Karnataka's OBC, Dalit and minority communities had converged in a show of renewed Ahinda solidarity. The Congress hopes to scale up its Backward Classes formula, crafted and championed by Siddaramaiah, to the national stage as it sharpens its strategy for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. Observers say this could be Congress's Mandal 2.0 moment, with the party reworking its social justice pitch after years in the political wilderness. Insiders say that caste census data and community estimates are fuelling Congress confidence. 'There's a huge block of Kurubas across the country,' said one source. 'When you add communities like fishers, Edigas, Yadavas, it could point to a social shakeup.' Despite their size, none of these communities has ever seen one of their own become prime minister, which the Congress is keen to highlight. The Mandal Commission had earlier pegged the OBC population at 51-52%, and when combined with Dalits, STs, Adivasis and minorities, the coalition could form 75 per cent of the Indian electorate. Leading the charge is Siddaramaiah, a two-time CM and Kuruba leader with grassroots connect, administrative acumen, and an advocate of the oppressed. His emergence as the symbol of a new social justice coalition has re-energised Congress circles. On Friday, Talkatora Stadium is expected to see a crowd which will rally for nationwide adoption of the Bengaluru Declaration, demand a nationwide caste census modelled after Telangana's survey of collecting social, economic and political data, relaxation of 50 per cent cap on reservation for backward classes, and implementation of reservation in private educational institutions. The Congress believes the road to 2029 runs through India's heartland castes, and Siddaramaiah could just be the man to lead the long march.
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
CM Siddaramaiah sandwiched as anti-caste survey agitation brews in Karnataka
File photo: CM Siddaramaiah (Photo: ANI) BENGALURU: Congress's decision to undertake a new caste survey in Karnataka has left the Siddaramaiah government sandwiched between a section of backward classes apprehensive of losing their purported advantage of numbers in the Kantharaj Commission's report and dominant communities like Lingayats and Vokkaligas that seek re-enumeration. This growing divergence over the upcoming "socio-economic and educational survey" comes days after CM Siddaramaiah's seemingly reluctant acceptance of what he said was the Congress brass's call rather than his government's. Some OBC representatives have been urging the state government to implement the recommendations of the original caste survey report, submitted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backwards Classes last year. Data collated by the Kantharaj Commission is said to favour OBCs, especially communities like the Kurubas that were classified under a separate 1-B category with 12% reservation. The report also proposes doubling the reservation for Muslims from 4% to 8%, which some still deem insufficient. The Shoshitha Vargagala Maha Okkota, which represents "oppressed" OBCs, backwards classes and minorities, has threatened a statewide agitation against the proposed new census. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo K Ramachadrappa, its president and former head of Karnataka Pradesha Kurubara Sangha, questioned the rationale for allegedly discarding Kantharaj Commission report after spending Rs 168 crore on the previous survey. "Govt claims the survey must be conducted once every 10 years, but that is irrelevant since the Kantharaj report was never implemented," he said. "Our demand is to implement its recommendations. We will meet on June 20 to decide the modalities for our agitation." In contrast, the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities, both of which had opposed the Kantharaj report, are planning an outreach and an online survey, respectively, to "complement" the survey. B Kenchappa Gowda, president of Vokkaligara Sangha, confirmed his community's plan. Sources said the official notification for the survey could be issued next Thursday, coinciding with Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi's birthday. Rahul, who presided over the meeting in Delhi last week where the Congress brass asked Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar to prepare for re-enumeration, is a proponent of "social justice through caste-based surveys". "Procedure will be followed. We are considering suggestions on the survey's modalities and schedule. I will consult CM Siddaramaiah, and an order will be issued soon based on his directive," state backwards classes welfare minister Shivaraj Tangadagi said. The cabinet has fixed a 90-day timeline to complete the exercise. Madhusudan R Naik, chairperson of BC commission, said preliminary work had already started.
Indian Express
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Congress tells Siddaramaiah govt to recount castes to assuage ‘fears', cites ‘old data'
The Congress high command directed the party's government in Karnataka Tuesday to conduct a recount of castes, two months after the findings of a report on a 10-year-old survey created a rift in the party and drew criticism from the politically dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities and some non-Kuruba backward classes. The decision on a recount was taken at a meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar in Delhi. AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal and AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala were also present. Apart from the caste census conundrum, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who is also the Karnataka Congress president, had been summoned by the leadership to Delhi to discuss the political fallout of the recent stampede in Bengaluru which claimed 11 lives. The Opposition has blamed the warring CM and his deputy for the breakdown of systems that led to the stampede and, as per sources, the two were pulled up by the high command. Ever since Siddaramaiah placed a report on the Socio-Economic and Education Survey before the Cabinet in April – incidentally two days after the AICC Session in Ahmedabad where the party leadership was fulsome in its praise for the caste survey conducted by the Telangana government – politics in Karnataka has been on the boil, with the party and the Cabinet also divided on the issue. On Tuesday, the Congress leadership asked the Siddaramaiah government to accord 'in-principle' approval to the survey, conducted in the first half of 2015, but conduct enumeration afresh within three months. The survey report, data and recommendations were submitted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes in 2024. However, both its recommendations and population data had immediately come under question, with objections ranging from 'undercounting' to the categorisation of some castes as most backward. Both Vokkaliga and Lingayat organisations demanded a fresh survey, after their population was found to be a little over 10% and close to 11%, respectively, much less than estimated so far. The Vokkaligas (Shivakumar is one) and Lingayats currently enjoy reservation under the III A and III B categories of the OBC quota. The non-Kuruba backward classes took objection to the recommendation that the Kurubas – a community to which Siddaramaiah belongs – be moved from 'more backward' to 'most backward' category. With the total population of backward classes in the state estimated to be as high as 70%, the non-Kuruba leaders, including of the Congress, have expressed the fear that the OBC reservation benefits will be cornered by the Kurubas. Other leaders argued that the data, collected in 2015, was old and did not reflect current ground reality. Sources said that the Congress high command felt these were serious objections and needed to be addressed. But it wants this done on a priority basis. At Tuesday's meeting, it was underlined to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar that the Telangana caste survey was completed in under three months. Siddaramaiah had earlier called for a special Cabinet meeting on June 12 to discuss the report. Now, the meeting in all likelihood will accept the report 'in principle' and discuss the modalities and timeline for the fresh enumeration. A previous such meeting, held soon after the report was submitted in April, had ended with Siddaramaiah directing his Cabinet colleagues to submit 'written opinions' on the report. Recently, after a Cabinet meeting, the CM said that the opinion of all the ministers is yet to be received. While the Siddaramaiah government has reasons to be wary given the fear of a backlash, any delay is a tricky issue for the Congress, given its commitment to a caste census and its focus on OBCs. However, sources said, Rahul Gandhi, who has been asking the party to aggressively reach out to OBCs, Dalits and tribals, was clear that the caste data should be foolproof and the exercise be seen as credible, so that the party could highlight it across the country. 'The Congress party is thinking that whatever the Karnataka government has done on caste census… that has to be agreed in principle. But there are apprehensions among some sections of the community and people about the counting of castes. The caste census was conducted 10 years ago, that data is a bit old. Therefore, we have suggested to the Chief Minister to do a re-enumeration within a stipulated time, like 60-70 or 80 days,' Venugopal told reporters after the meeting. Siddaramaiah said the re-enumeration exercise will be completed within 90 days. He also said that this was needed as the data collected by the 2015 survey was old, though 'we have to accept the report in principle'. Incidentally, the 2015 survey had been carried out under Siddaramaiah's first tenure as CM. Siddaramaiah said that the enumeration will be along the lines of the survey being carried out for Scheduled Castes in the state, which is being done ahead of provision of internal reservation among SCs. On the stampede that led to 11 deaths, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were questioned by the high command over the decision to celebrate the maiden IPL title victory of Royal Challengers Bangalore on a weekday. Sources said Kharge and Gandhi also expressed their displeasure over the involvement of the state government in the celebrations. A source said Gandhi told Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar that human lives are of 'great value' to the Congress and the government has to be responsive towards people, 'unlike the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh or the Left government in Kerala, where no responsibility was taken for the loss of lives during the Kumbh and Sabarimala tragedy respectively'. The CM was told to handhold the families who have lost their loved ones and put in place a full protocol for crowd management to prevent such mishaps from recurring. 'Certainly, we are concerned about every life. The Karnataka government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the unfortunate incident. The party clearly believes there should be a pro-people attitude regarding the issue,' Venugopal said.
Deccan Herald
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Upparas found to be most backward of 22 communities
Bengaluru: The Uppara community, with a backwardness score of 134.88/200, is the most backward amongst 22 specific communities in the OBC and general list, according to the latest data from the Social and Educational Survey (caste census) details of community-wise backwardness were provided to the ministers by the backward classes welfare department during the last Cabinet survey with 54 questions was conducted for 200 marks. The higher the score, the more backward a community Upparas were followed by Besthas (129.45) and Kuruba (123.50) as the second and third most backward communities, respectively. .Forward were found to be the most forward community (11.29), followed by Christians (24.68) and Bunts (31.81)..The dominant, landowning Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities scored 41.58 and 42.60, respectively. Except for Brahmins (general), the remaining 21 communities considered in the list were categorised under the other backward classes (OBC) list..A caste census will reveal India's worst-kept DH had reported earlier, the 54 questions were based on social, educational and livelihood categories. Of the 200 points, 100 points were awarded to questions on social backwardness, followed by education (68) and livelihood (32)..With 90 marks considered the cut-off point, communities scoring over 90 points were considered 'most backward' and categorised under category 1. .This was further divided into 1A (125+) and 1B (90-124). While Upparas and Besthas are categorised under 1A, Kurubas come under there was only category 1. The Jayaprakash Hegde-led backward classes commission has recommended dividing the category into 1A and 1B, with some communities like Kuruba, which were earlier in 2A, now moved to 1B. .Communities scoring in the range of 50-89 were considered 'more backward' and categorised as category 2 (2A and 2B). Communities like Idiga, Maratha, Tigala and Ganiga feature in 2A. Muslims and sub-castes come under 2B. .Communities scoring in the 20-49 range were considered 'backward' and put into category 3 (those communities under 3A and 3B were retained as such)..While Vokkaligas, Balijas and so on come under 3A, Lingayats, Christians, Bunts and so on feature under 3B. Communities scoring under 19 points were considered under the general category. .Ministers were provided a consolidated document with details of each caste spanning three pages, comprising 18 characteristics of those castes, including total number of households in the caste, population of male and female and sexual minorities, Aadhaar details, number of married people, literacy level, number of employed and unemployed people and land-holders.
New Indian Express
10-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
MBC leaders slam new quota, caste inaccuracies in Karnataka census
BENGALURU: Karnataka's More and Most Backward Caste (MBCs) leaders came together under the leadership of actor-activist Chetan Ahimsa on Thursday, to criticise the Backward Classes Commission, and denounce what they said was 'betrayal of social justice.' Terming the newly-introduced 1B reservation category 'unscientific, unjust, and politically motivated', speakers accused the Commission of bypassing academic and employment data and educational statistics to fabricate the category for political convenience. 'This is not social justice,' declared one speaker. MBC nomadic communities demanded their own scientific subclassification. Actor Chetan Ahimsa said that while the Karnataka Socio-Economic & Educational Survey (SES-2015) was billed as a tool for social justice, it is looking more like caste manipulation. Ahimsa pointed to the sudden formation of 1B category in April 2025, which grants 12 per cent reservation to 80 castes, including the Kuruba community, to which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah belongs. He questioned why castes previously under Groups 1 and 2A were reshuffled, and communities like Kurubas (formerly 2A) were placed with some of the state's most vulnerable, such as Devadasis and Hallaki Vokkaligas. 'The math doesn't add up,' he said. '1B has a population of 73.9 lakh, smaller than 2A's 77.7 lakh, yet gets 2 per cent more reservation. What justifies this?'
