Caste census decision put off amid Lingayat, Vokkaliga objection

The next Cabinet meeting, scheduled at the Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar on April 24, will be a regular one with different subjects, H K Patil said.

Bengaluru: The Cabinet on Thursday deferred a decision on the contentious Social and Educational Survey, also called caste census, following resistance from Lingayat and Vokkaliga ministers.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said: "We had detailed discussions and deliberated on the parameters involved in the survey. Though the discussions were harmonious, they were incomplete and we will discuss this issue in the Cabinet meeting expected to be held on May 2."

The next Cabinet meeting, scheduled at the Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar on April 24, will be a regular one with different subjects, Patil added. 

Sources said that the Cabinet meeting witnessed heated scenes as some Lingayat and Vokkaliga ministers are said to have expressed reservations about the report. The two dominant communities are opposed to the report. 

Earlier this week, veteran Congressman and All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamnur Shivashankarappa stated that the Congress could not remain in power by antagonising the Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

According to sources, Mining Minister S S Mallikarjun (Shamnur’s son) was among the vocal voices against the report and is said to have dubbed the report as unacceptable. Sugar Minister Shivanand Patil is said to have cautioned the Cabinet that the government would have to tread carefully and recalled how the Congress suffered in the 2018 polls because of the separate Lingayat religion row. 

A minister told DH that Lingayat ministers were concerned that the report was 10 years old. "The Lingayat ministers argued that in 2015, when the survey took place, the demand for a separate Lingayat religion and the absence of a decision on internal reservation for Dalits resulted in Lingayats enumerating themselves under different sub-community names," he added.

Ministers are said to have contented that Lingayat sub-communities like Sadar, Reddy Lingayat and so on had been undercounted. "They questioned how the report counted only 50,000 Reddy-Lingayats in Yadgir," the minister said. 

Sources explained that even Vokkaliga ministers were unhappy, with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar himself believed to have expressed reservations about implementing the report's findings. 

Before the Cabinet meeting, Vokkaliga ministers led by Shivakumar met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and conveyed their community's concerns about the report.

When some ministers dubbed the 2015 survey report as "unscientific", Siddaramaiah asked them to give their opinions in writing. 

Apparently, some ministers suggested allowing citizens who were left out of the survey to enumerate themselves, similar to how the Election Commission invites voters to enrol themselves.