Get together’s Stand Vs Private Ambition? ‘Face Of Vokkaligas’ DK Shivakumar Walks Caste Census Tightrope – News18
Final Up to date:
With the Karnataka caste survey being seen as a possible game-changer, the deputy CM has been attempting to handle the discontent brewing amongst Vokkaliga leaders
For Shivakumar, it’s extra than simply caste arithmetic—it’s about political survival. (PTI)
The leaked caste census report has triggered a contemporary churn in Karnataka politics. Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar is working time beyond regulation to try to be sure that the highly effective Vokkaliga group stays firmly throughout the Congress fold at a time when he’s attempting to consolidate himself because the chief of the second-largest dominant group in Karnataka till the final census was performed.
The Congress has been struggling to include the harm since tabling the caste census—each inside and from exterior.
Shivakumar, who has been actively projecting himself because the Vokkaliga face within the occasion, is strolling a political tightrope. With the caste survey being seen as a possible game-changer, Shivakumar has been attempting to handle the discontent brewing amongst Vokkaliga leaders.
For Shivakumar, it’s extra than simply caste arithmetic—it’s about political survival.
In a closed-door assembly in Bengaluru, Shivakumar met with Vokkaliga MLAs and outstanding leaders, making an attempt to douse the fireplace and take heed to their considerations. The assembly got here after the socio-economic and academic survey — commissioned in 2015 throughout Siddaramaiah’s earlier tenure — was formally handed over to ministers within the Cupboard. Whereas components of the report have been leaked and reported, the whole knowledge stays confidential.
It’s stated that the suggestions have been made to extend reservation for OBCs from 32 per cent to 51 per cent, and for Muslims from 4 per cent to eight per cent. This has not simply drawn flak from opposition events but in addition sharp reactions from throughout the Congress itself. The occasion is now going through warmth from its personal leaders, particularly from the highly effective Vokkaliga group, who really feel their place is being diluted underneath the garb of social justice.
Sources who attended the assembly stated Shivakumar assured leaders that the federal government wouldn’t take any hasty selections and that the report would solely be tabled after wider consultations. “The Congress authorities is dedicated to justice for all communities, and we are going to be sure that considerations raised by any group are regarded into. There’s a want to elucidate how the information was collected. There are apprehensions that it was not carried out in a scientific method. All that can come out as soon as we get the complete report and we’re capable of analyse it in toto,” a senior chief stated.
Nevertheless it additionally learnt that Vokkaliga leaders have been blunt. They made it clear that they might not settle for any transfer that chips away at their present political or reservation house. “We’ve got communicated clearly that our place can’t be undermined within the identify of social justice and there’s a sure threshold that one shouldn’t cross,” stated a Vokkaliga chief.
The pushback from the group is important. Leaders questioned the delay in tabling the report and raised considerations about transparency. “Why is there no readability? We wish to know the place we stand. If our numbers are proven as smaller than they’re, it is going to have an effect on our future — politically and by way of welfare entitlements,” one chief stated.
Shivakumar, conscious of the political danger, tried to stability his occasion’s narrative on OBC empowerment with the nervousness amongst dominant communities just like the Vokkaligas and Lingayats. “I’ve instructed them that no determination will probably be taken that harms the Vokkaligas. As a group, they’ve all the time contributed to the state’s development and politics,” he stated after the assembly.
For Shivakumar, the stakes are excessive. The caste census has come at a time when he’s positioning himself as the subsequent CM face. Dropping grip on the Vokkaliga vote base would dent his ambitions.
Congress MLC Dinesh Gooligowda, additionally a Vokkaliga, shot off a letter to chief minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, asking for both a committee of consultants or a Cupboard sub-committee to check the findings. “In mild of the considerations raised, I request the formation of a sub-committee to totally examine the survey and submit its findings,” he wrote.
The 50-volume caste census report, performed first by the Kantharaj Commision and later taken over by Jayaprakash Hegde, was lastly tabled with the Siddaramaiah Cupboard final Friday. It has already seen pushback not simply from the Congress but in addition from BJP, JD(S), and non secular leaders representing the Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Critics have questioned the methodology of the survey and demanded that or not it’s redone.
Whereas the leaked components of the report don’t explicitly point out the inhabitants figures of Vokkaligas and Lingayats, it outlines category-based reservations. Below Class III(A), which incorporates Vokkaligas and two different communities, the inhabitants is estimated at 73 lakh, with a 7 per cent quota suggestion. Below Class III(B), which covers Veerashaiva-Lingayats and 5 different castes, the determine is 81.3 lakh, with an 8 per cent advised quota. The state’s general inhabitants is pegged at 5.9 crore.
Industries minister MB Patil, a outstanding Lingayat voice within the Cupboard, additionally flagged considerations. “If we depend all of the Lingayat sub-sects and people listed underneath 3B, their complete inhabitants simply crosses one crore,” he stated.
Senior Congress chief Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who can be president of the All-India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, known as the survey “unscientific” and claimed that nobody had even visited his house for knowledge assortment.
Shivakumar, whereas preserving a low profile on the specifics, stated: “Everyone seems to be attempting to safeguard their communities. That’s their democratic proper. The cupboard will take up the matter on April 17, and the CM has stated the meeting will even debate the difficulty. We gained’t rush into it.”
The 1990 Chenna Reddy Fee had estimated Lingayats at 19 per cent and Vokkaligas at 17 per cent, and that knowledge had shaped the premise for a 4 per cent quota for Muslims by the then Deve Gowda authorities. In accordance with the 2015 survey, Muslims represent 12.6 per cent of the state’s inhabitants. The most important single group is the Scheduled Castes, with a inhabitants of round 1.1 crore, unfold throughout 108 sub-castes.
The BJP has gone on the offensive, accusing the Congress of engineering the survey to appease minorities. “That is clearly a fabricated report. It’s apparent that the CM dictated the numbers. In any other case, how do you clarify Muslims being proven as the biggest group?” stated senior BJP chief and chief of opposition R Ashoka.
