Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has made his strongest bid yet to include the Kurubas—the shepherding community he belongs to—in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, further stirring up the already complex caste dynamics in the state.
The current recommendations are for the inclusion of the Kuruba community from places like Bidar, Kalaburagi and Yadgir. The government is trying to examine the similarities between them and Gonds, who are already on the ST list.
But members of other communities already under the ST category fear this would be the beginning of the push to bring all Kurubas into this fold that would further stretch the already scarce opportunities.
For decades, the 76-year-old chief minister has been advocating for Kuruba’s inclusion in the ST fold that would not just further consolidate his support base but also establish this as part of his legacy.
“This (recommending to bring Kurubas into ST) was done in the previous government itself. No one has to object to this. It is the Centre that decides to include them into ST list or not. We (state) can only recommend it,” Siddaramaiah told reporters Wednesday in Kalaburagi.
He added that this time around, the state government would share additional data and documents with the Union government, hoping to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s approval on the same.
The move would further solidify the significance of the Kuruba community in Karnataka’s complex caste dynamics, empowering the community to seek better reservation-linked opportunities and a bigger share in the political landscape.
Siddaramaiah’s aggressive push comes days before the government undertakes a second socio-economic and educational survey (better known as ‘caste census’) between 22 September and 7 October at an expenditure of Rs 420 crore. It will be the second such survey in the state in the last decade. The previous such exercise was conducted in 2015, but it has now been scrapped.
Though his detractors from some dominant communities had their way in getting the 2015 survey scrapped, Siddaramaiah is not allowing the setback to dampen his resolve in challenging the existing social and political structure that is largely centered around Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
Also Read: Vokkaligas, Lingayats threaten agitation as 2015 Karnataka ‘caste census’ dents their dominant status
‘State can’t conduct census’
Out of the 23 leaders who have become chief ministers in Karnataka, only seven have been from communities other than the Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
In Karnataka, caste trumps political party affiliations. The most vocal opposition to the release of the 2015 caste census earlier this year was from Siddaramaiah’s own cabinet colleagues, including D.K. Shivakumar, Eshwara Khandre and S.S.Mallikarjuna among others.
Just last week, a decision by the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha (AIVM), headed by veteran Congress leader Shamnur Shivashankarappa, to get itself listed under “others” in the upcoming caste census survey has revived the clamour for a separate minority religion status for the politically powerful Lingayat community.
But the decision has exposed the faultlines within the community, with a significant section demanding that the word Veerashaiva not be used interchangeably with the religion of Lingayats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too has opposed the move to list them under “others”, adding to the complexities.
Basavaraj Bommai, former Karnataka chief minister and the BJP’s Member of Parliament from Haveri-Gadag, Wednesday said the state government should wait for the central government to complete its caste census.
“The state government does not have the authority to conduct such a survey and it can only do a sample survey,” he told reporters in Haveri. The BJP is objecting to several aspects of the new questionnaire which has more than 60 queries. It also has ‘others’ and ‘non-believers’ columns.
Siddaramaiah told a press conference last week that in cases where there are ‘Dalit-Christians’ or similar groups, the backward classes commission would take a call as to how and which groups they would be categorised under.
Bommai objected to this. “They have made a separate column for converted Christians, projecting as though converted Christians exist in every community. But the Constitution does not provide for any such column. Instead of uniting society, they are fragmenting it into pieces. This is neither with good intentions nor with social concern—it is entirely political,” he said.
Various other communities already under the ST fold fear that an additional 5 million Kurubas within the category will also compete for their 7 percent reservation. There are already 50 caste groups that come under this category as per the state list.
Two groups, Jenu Kuruba and Kadu Kuruba, are already on this list and the push to include more members of the community have only heightened fears. The Kuruba community is currently classified under 2A of the backward classes list that has 15 percent reservation.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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