Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Bengaluru: Some sections of the Banjara, Bhovi, Korma and Korcha communities ('touchable Dalits') held a protest on Wednesday, against the government’s decision on internal reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs).
They urged the government to reject the Nagamohan Das Commission report.
BJP state president B Y Vijayendra, former Kudachi MLA P Rajeev and other BJP leaders participated in the protest at Freedom Park.
However, Congress leaders from the 'touchable' communities did not participate in the protest, and called BJP's action "politically motivated".
Protestors slammed the government for its 6-6-5 formula, which includes the 'touchable' Dalits in the same group as 59 'most backward' communities.
They slammed the Das Commission report and demanded that the words 'touchable' and 'untouchable' be removed from the report.
When the protestors left Freedom Park and tried to gherao the Vidhana Soudha, they were blocked by the police through barricades.
After some time, the crowd was dispersed. Transport and Muzrai Minister Ramalinga Reddy met the protestors and received a memo containing their demands.
Speaking to DH after the protest, Rajeev flayed the government’s decision.
"They have neither followed the Madhuswamy committee's recommendation nor the Das Commission report. Socialism is not arithmetic. If they wanted to make a political decision, why did they spend hundreds of crores of rupees on the survey?"
Noting that the government hadn’t followed the Supreme Court guidelines that empirical data had to be studied and that there should be inter-se analysis, he said, "Even Das has not followed the SC's recommendations. They should conduct a re-survey. Till then, they should follow the Madhuswamy committee’s recommendations, which are scientific".
Rajeev said they would give the government a week's time and added that the BJP would support the demand of the 59 'most backward' communities for a separate 1% reservation.