Bangalore: A gaggle of Dalits representing 59 of Karnataka’s most susceptible micro-communities has been touring Congress headquarters in Delhi for over per week in search of an viewers with Rahul Gandhi after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah rejected the Dalits’ calls for to supply them with reservations and different safeguards.
The largely nomadic group is pinning its hopes on the Congress management for justice and safety because the Siddaramaiah authorities’s new inner reservation scheme for Scheduled Castes (SC) will additional marginalize them.
“In about 22 caste teams, not a single particular person has ever gone to highschool, and in one other 17 teams, nobody has gone past the fifth grade. Mr. Siddaramaiah, who talks about social justice and considers himself a champion of backward lessons, mentioned he can’t assist us in any respect,” Basavaraj Narayankar, a member of the group in Delhi, advised ThePrint.
On Wednesday, they met Shashikant Senthil, a civil servant turned politician, within the hope that the Tamil Nadu Congress chief would assist convey a message to Rahul.
At the least three officers from the group mentioned Mr. Siddaramaiah has denied any help to those communities and mentioned the cupboard doesn’t assist him on the difficulty.
In August, Siddaramaiah’s cupboard authorized a retained earnings matrix based mostly on a report by Justice Nagamohan Das. This matrix deviates from earlier suggestions and the matrix put ahead by the earlier Bharatiya Janata Social gathering authorities led by Basavaraj Bomay.
Below this system, out of the entire 17 per cent of SC reservations, the teams recognized by the fee as SC-Proper and SC-Left acquired an elevated quota of 6 per cent every, whereas Class C, often called ‘touchables’, acquired 5 per cent.
These 59 smaller teams belong inside Class C, together with bigger teams such because the Banjaras, Lambanis, Qormis, and Kulchas, that are among the many most politically represented and influential teams. This clustering, they are saying, leaves microcommunities with little probability of overcoming social, financial, academic and political backwardness.
These organizations are calling on the federal government to extend the retained earnings of all SCs to 18%. That approach, you may be sharing no less than 1% with these organizations.
Rahul Gandhi’s Congress champions social justice and insists on a nationwide caste census, however the Horeya-led SC Proper Group and the SC Left Madiga Group (which embrace occasion president Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Meals Minister KH Muniyappa, respectively) have secured a bigger share of inner reservations, limiting Siddaramaiah’s capability to answer them. Microcommunity.
“These communities are essentially the most susceptible and are getting a foul deal on this complete course of. They’re asking us to take out 0.5 per cent from every of the three classes and provides it to them,” CS Dwarkanath, chairman of the social justice wing of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), advised ThePrint.
“The federal government may have raised South Carolina’s inhabitants from 17 per cent to 18 per cent and no less than allotted a further share to them,” added the previous chairman of the Karnataka Backward Courses Fee.
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“Uncooked transaction”
Based on the 2011 census, SCs represent 17.5 per cent of Karnataka’s inhabitants, whereas Scheduled Tribes (STs) represent 6.95 per cent. Of the state’s 224 meeting constituencies, 36 are allotted to SCs and 15 to STs.
The Horreya-led SC right-wing group and the Madiga-led SC left-wing group are among the many most influential and politically represented communities inside the SC class.
Based on knowledge from the Nagamohan Das Committee report, among the many micro-communities, there are solely eight folks within the Mara Khannai group and 6 within the Kepmari group, making them extraordinarily susceptible and with none safety.
“The phrase social justice mustn’t come out of Siddaramaiah’s mouth. He claims to face with these extraordinarily oppressed lessons…These are communities thought of untouchable by the untouchables. He has taken the whole lot from these communities for the sake of politics,” the Congress chief complained.
Based on the report, the SC survey discovered that the ‘Left’ group constituted about 33.47 per cent of the SC inhabitants, ‘Proper’ group 32 per cent, ‘Touchables’ 23.64 per cent and ‘Others’ 4.65 per cent. Lots of the survey respondents reportedly refused to reply. It was estimated that there have been roughly 25 “right-handed” and 20 “left-handed” communities.
The idea of “left” and “proper” castes dates again to the Center Ages and was as soon as widespread in a lot of South India. Consultants say that in Karnataka, those that are actually thought of “leftists” have traditionally been among the many most oppressed folks, in comparison with others who had considerably higher privileges (now “rightists”).
Based on the Nagamohan Das Committee report, the entire inhabitants of all these 59 communities is simply over 5.22 million folks. However these communities haven’t any political illustration on the state degree and even in grama panchayats, Basavaraj mentioned.
These communities held an indication in Bangalore on September 3 and in Delhi final week. Siddaramaiah met with group representatives in Bangalore on September 4.
A number of occasion officers and different political leaders who spoke to ThePrint mentioned that the CM is making an attempt to struggle many fires inside his cupboard, together with the continued caste census, depleted coffers, stress for resignations and different points, and has no time for scattered group teams which have neither social nor political capital.
“Please do not steal from our plates.”
The Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities is conducting its second socio-economic and academic survey in a decade.
The caste census pitted Veerashaiva and Lingayat ministers towards one another and uncovered flaws inside the caste’s personal authorities.
Different influential teams, such because the land-owning agricultural group Vocaligas, have additionally expressed disapproval of the train. The BJP and its ally the Janata Dal (Secular) opposed the train, calling it an train to divide society for political acquire.
Leaders like Tejasvi Surya have requested his Brahmin group to boycott the inquiry as it’s “voluntary”.
Making issues worse for Siddaramaiah is his determination to incorporate the Kuruba tribe, the shepherd group from which he hails, as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
“I do know Mr Siddaramaiah didn’t do this, however Mr Basavaraj Bommai really useful Mr Kurubas to be included within the ST. We’re not making an attempt to be egocentric however please do not steal from our plate (reservation),” senior Congress chief and Siddaramaiah’s shut aide VS Ugrappa mentioned when the CM additionally joined him on stage on the Valmiki Jayanti celebrations in Raichur on Tuesday.
“We’re not reaching out to your views. It was not me who took out foot marches and protests to incorporate Kurubas within the STs. This was achieved by (former BJP chief KS) Eshwarappa,” Siddaramaiah replied to Ugurappa.
(Edited by Sague Kitty)
Additionally learn: Siddaramaiah’s push to incorporate Kurvas in ST fold disrupts Karnataka’s advanced caste dynamics
