BJP's single-point agenda is to portray Siddaramaiah as anti-Hindu, says Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao

'State government has not added names of castes such as Brahmin Christian, Lingayat Christian and Gowda Christian to the list'

Madikeri: The single-point agenda of the BJP is to portray Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as anti-Hindu, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao has said.

He told mediapersons here on Tuesday that the State government had not added the names of castes such as 'Brahmin Christian', 'Lingayat Christian', and 'Gowda Christian' to the list. Siddaramaiah has nothing to do with this. This list is based on the information provided by around one lakh people during the previous survey. BJP leader R Ashoka himself had admitted to this when he was a Minister. Now, the issue is being brought up and confusion is being created to portray Siddaramaiah as anti-Hindu, Dinesh alleged.

"The Hindu religion has many castes in it. Will the religion get divided only because there are multiple castes?" he asked and clarified that the government had not notified any castes.

Stating that the caste census would be carried out by the Union government, the Minister asked BJP leaders to write to the Prime Minister to scrap it. “The State government is not conducting the caste census. It is a socio-educational survey,” he said.

Rao said he was not aware of how much BJP State president B Y Vijayendra knew about the survey. He might have to update his information, he said and asked whether it is not true that the BJP-led State government had accepted the Kantharaj commission report earlier and appointed K Jayaprakash Hegde to implement measures as per the report.

Responding to a query, he said the Special Investigation Team would initiate action against the guilty in the probe being carried out in Dharmasthala.