Is Caste Census Push Siddaramaiah Sarkar’s Smokescreen For Chinnaswamy Stampede?

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Political analysts mentioned by specializing in caste census, the federal government was attempting to deflect consideration from fees of corruption and mishandling that led to the stampede
Each CM Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar rushed to Delhi to temporary the Congress excessive command on harm management over the Bengaluru tragedy and a approach ahead on caste census knowledge. (PTI)
Is the Karnataka authorities utilizing the caste census re-enumeration as a distraction from the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede that left 11 useless and over 50 injured?
Because the Siddaramaiah authorities tries to steer public consideration in the direction of caste knowledge and social justice, the timing is not possible to disregard. The Chinnaswamy stampede has dented the Congress authorities’s credibility and administrative picture. Whether or not this renewed push for caste enumeration is an effort to make sure inclusivity or a tactical deflection from a governance failure is a query political voices in Karnataka are actually asking aloud.
Simply days after firefighting public outrage over the mishandling of the IPL celebration occasion, the Siddaramaiah authorities has shifted focus to a long-pending situation—the caste census report, which is able to now be mentioned on the cupboard assembly scheduled for June 12.
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Each chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar rushed to Delhi to temporary the Congress excessive command on two fronts—harm management over the Bengaluru tragedy and a approach ahead on the contentious caste census knowledge. What emerged from the Delhi assembly was a sudden push for re-enumeration, successfully revisiting the caste survey first commissioned in 2015 throughout Siddaramaiah’s first tenure.
Whereas the Congress insists this transfer is to deal with complaints of exclusion and underrepresentation within the earlier survey, senior officers who’ve labored carefully with the undertaking query the timing and motive. “That is clearly deflection techniques. The caste survey has been delayed and dragged lengthy sufficient. From the time it was performed, to when it was tabled, and now again below dialogue. The truth that Congress leaders in Delhi have requested for a reassessment exhibits they’re shifting focus away from the Chinnaswamy mishap,” mentioned a senior official within the know of the developments.
Confusion reigns even amongst these concerned within the survey. Some officers say the Congress has accepted the 2015 report “in precept”, whereas concurrently planning a re-survey. “Why spend one other Rs 200–250 crore of public cash?” one official requested.
On the Delhi assembly, attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, the management agreed to go forward with a re-enumeration train inside a timeframe of 60–90 days. AICC common secretary KC Venugopal informed the media that the method can be fast-tracked and that the occasion was eager to make sure all sections felt included.
Former Backward Lessons Fee chairman CS Dwarakanath questioned how the census might be performed, provided that now it’s within the submission stage the place it must be debated within the cupboard.
“It’s a marathon train that requires over one lakh folks to be concerned,” he mentioned. “Rs 167 crore was spent on the caste survey, and if it must be performed once more, then it could require extra funds and likewise must be finished scientifically—together with an ethnographic examine, assortment of empirical knowledge, and gathering of secondary sources of knowledge. All this must be finished in a scientific method, however would it not be potential to do all this in a timeframe of 60–90 days?” he questioned.
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A senior official related with the caste census report provided a extra nuanced view. “There are two parallel concepts at play. On one hand, the occasion has accepted the report’s suggestions in precept. However for the reason that authentic knowledge is now almost a decade outdated, and a caste census is ideally performed each ten years, there’s additionally a robust argument to refresh the numbers. Let’s wait until the cupboard determination.”
Nonetheless, the stampede incident was additionally mentioned. Venugopal mentioned the state authorities had briefed the occasion in regards to the June 4 stampede on the Chinnaswamy Stadium throughout Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory celebration. “We’re deeply involved about each human life. The federal government has already ordered a judicial probe,” he mentioned. Nonetheless, each the occasion and Siddaramaiah himself have distanced themselves from the specifics of the tragedy, with the chief minister stating he wasn’t concerned in organising the occasion and had been knowledgeable late in regards to the crowd surge.
In the meantime, Shivakumar mentioned the re-survey might be finished in a approach that no neighborhood feels side-lined. “Those that felt disregarded earlier might be given one other alternative,” he mentioned, including that the cupboard would plan the re-enumeration course of to make sure honest illustration for all.
The unique 2015 caste survey had triggered main political friction. As soon as submitted formally this April, the report deepened rifts between dominant communities just like the Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats and varied OBC teams.
It proposed restructuring the present 5 caste classes into six and steered scrapping creamy layer exemptions for castes in Class 1, probably the most backward. This didn’t go down effectively throughout the Congress both, with Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders alleging their communities have been undercounted.
The Congress authorities had additionally launched a parallel initiative for inner reservation amongst Scheduled Castes. On Might 5, the state started a recent enumeration of 101 SC sub-castes, involving over 65,000 schoolteachers and knowledge assortment camps. The method is geared toward restructuring reservation inside SCs—just like the mannequin adopted by Congress-ruled Telangana—to make sure extra equitable distribution of advantages among the many most deprived teams.
Justice HN Nagamohan Das, who heads the inner reservation panel, flagged challenges with this door-to-door survey. Many poor households have been unwilling to disclose their sub-castes or have been unaware of them completely.
To date, the inner reservation survey has coated 19.55 lakh of the estimated 25.72 lakh SC households. Particular camps have been held between Might 26 and 28 to cowl extra floor. The fee goals to finish the method quickly and submit its report inside two months.
The caste census has lengthy been a political minefield in Karnataka. The Congress has confronted repeated flak over delays in tabling the report and pushing again cabinet-level discussions. Siddaramaiah had earlier mentioned the suggestions of the Backward Lessons Fee can be carried out, however his remarks have been met with sharp resistance from dominant communities.
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri mentioned: “It clearly is deflection techniques. By specializing in this, you are attempting to deflect consideration from the costs of corruption and the mishandling—and refusal to take political accountability—within the current Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede.”
“It additionally represents the a number of layers of contradictions the Congress occasion and its cupboard face. We now have a chief minister who desires to deal with the empowerment of the non-dominant OBCs and the presence of dormant caste teams and their representatives who can not let down their communities,” he added.
He additionally identified that the choice taken by the federal government—by letting heads roll within the police drive—has long-term ramifications. “Within the course of, you’ve finished one thing that may be damaging in the long run by demoralising the police drive, fixing accountability on them, and suspending All India Providers officers. That has by no means occurred in any state,” Shastri mentioned.
He recalled how former Karnataka chief minister Bangarappa had as soon as suspended Karnataka chief secretary Shankarnarayan for calling him “unreliable”, however such a transfer in opposition to the police has by no means occurred in any state on such grounds. The transfer on the caste census, he mentioned, is clearly meant to shift focus away from this political mismanagement.

Rohini Swamy, Affiliate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for almost twenty years within the tv and digital house. She covers south India for News18’s digital platform. She has beforehand labored with t…Learn Extra
Rohini Swamy, Affiliate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for almost twenty years within the tv and digital house. She covers south India for News18’s digital platform. She has beforehand labored with t… Learn Extra
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