Is 'caste survey' report turning into a tool for CM Siddaramaiah to silence his political opponents?

Has the 'caste survey' report in Karnataka become a paper tiger? Is it now just a tool in the hands of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to silence his opponents within and outside the party? 

Siddaramaiah, a mass leader and an OBC (Kuruba) leader turned lucky a second time in 2023 when he occupied the CM’s chair after the Congress party wrested a thumping majority and dislodged the BJP from power. 

KPCC chief D K Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader who had succeeded in shifting the crucial Vokkaliga votes from JDS to Congress in the hope of becoming the chief minister had to settle for the deputy’s post. But the power tussle continues.

The state is once again witnessing a battle for political dominance, as the Congress remains a divided house and the ‘Ahinda’ (minorities, dalit and backward classes) leaders are locked in a battle with the Vokkaliga strongman Shivakumar. Besides the Ahinda conventions, which is a ‘show of strength’, the undisclosed caste survey is the latest political tool that comes in handy every time the chief minister wants to rein-in his political opponents and to send a reminder to the party high command of his broad support base. It is a pandora’s box that could alter the political landscape of the country.

Leader of the opposition in Parliament Rahul Gandhi pushed for a nationwide caste census and endorsed the slogan 'Jitni abadi utna Haq' (Rights proportionate to the population) while calling for greater representation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) based on their population.

The caste census in the country should enumerate not only the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) population but also the OBC to ensure a 'fair' resource allocation and representation, contends the Congress leader. But Karnataka was the first state to push for a similar survey prior to this nationwide campaign. In 2015, during Siddaramaiah’s first stint as the chief minister (2013-2018), he commissioned a study of the socio-economic and educational status of the various social groups, (referred to as the ‘caste survey’. Accordingly, the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (H Kantharaju Commission) prepared a report spending Rs 169 crore. While the report was ready by 2016, it was put in cold storage by subsequent governments fearing a backlash from politically dominant and numerically strong communities – the Vokkaliga and Lingayat. 

Again in 2020, the BJP government appointed Jayaprakash Hegde as the Commission chief but the report was not made public. Hegde submitted the final report to the Siddaramaiah government on February 29, 2024, where he recommended reservation in education and public employment and targeted intervention to empower the backward communities.

The Vokkaligara Sangha and the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, which represent the Vokkaligas and Lingayats, the two dominant caste groups in the state, are opposed to the caste census as they suspect the survey has undercounted their population. The two communities believed to be numerically strong (Lingayat - 17 per cent of the total population and Vokkaliga - 12 per cent) have been wielding immense political power. At least 16 of the 23 chief ministers of Karnataka belong to these two caste groups. The community leaders cutting across party lines feel that the census, by undercounting their numbers, might curtail their political representation both within and outside the party. 

The two communities believe the survey is "unscientific" and "incomplete"  and does not truly reflect their numerical strength.

Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader has been a signatory to a dissent letter by the Vokkaligara Sangha, while the Lingayat leaders from the Congress party too have demanded a fresh survey.

Industries minister M B Patil, a Lingayat leader said: "Many Lingayat subsects have enumerated only as 'Hindu' and not as Lingayat due to reservation policy. It will grave injustice to the community if the survey fails to reflect the actual numbers."

Union minister and JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy, also a Vokkaliga, asked the chief minister if the guarantee schemes of the ruling Congress had failed to give justice to the people in the absence of the survey report. 

BJP leader and LOP in Assembly R Ashok asked the Karnataka government to cooperate with the Union government which is planning to conduct a caste census along with the conventional census (to be released in 2026). "Why is the CM in a hurry to implement a 10-year-old report?," he asked.

The Opposition BJP is opposed to the "incomplete" survey being tabled in the House in a hurry as the party’s main support base, the Lingayat community is sceptical about the report favouring them. 

This time again, the demand to make the caste survey public has been revived by the ‘Ahinda’ leaders as they suspect they are in large numbers and can hard bargain for adequate political representation and resource allocation too.

Siddaramaiah who had indicated that the survey would be tabled before the Cabinet on January 16, had to revoke his decision owing to directions from the party high command to hold back. Amid frequent speculations over the survey being ‘leaked’ Siddaramaiah announced that the survey remains ‘sealed’ and would be opened two hours prior to the next cabinet meeting without specifying a date.

With the factional feud to grab the KPCC chief’s post and eventually the CM’s chair gains steam, Shivakumar is struggling to gain control over the party before he can finally stake claim to the CM’s post as per a "secret" power-sharing pact agreed upon by the CM, DCM and the party high command post the May 2023 Assembly polls.