Now at Rahul Gandhi’s door, why nomadic SCs are opposing Siddaramaiah’s inner reservation system

Now at Rahul Gandhi’s door, why nomadic SCs are opposing Siddaramaiah’s inner reservation system

Last Updated: October 9, 2025By

Bengaluru: For over per week now, a gaggle of Dalits representing Karnataka’s 59 most susceptible micro communities has been doing the rounds of the Congress head workplace in Delhi, looking for an viewers with Rahul Gandhi after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah turned down their requests to offer them with any inner reservations or different safeguards.

The largely nomadic teams are pinning their hopes on the Congress brass to get justice and safety because the Siddaramaiah authorities’s new inner reservation system for Scheduled Castes (SC), they are saying, leaves them additional marginalised.

“In round 22 caste teams, not even one particular person has ever gone to highschool, whereas in one other 17, nobody has gone past fifth grade. Siddaramaiah, who speaks about social justice and initiatives himself because the champion of backward courses, stated he can not assist us in any respect,” Basavaraj Narayankar, a member of this group in Delhi, advised ThePrint.

On Wednesday, they met civil servant-turned-politician Shashikanth Senthil, hoping that the Congress MP from Tamil Nadu might assist cross on the message to Rahul.

At the very least three individuals from this group stated that Siddaramaiah denied any assist to those communities and acknowledged that his Cupboard was not backing him on the problem.

In August, the Siddaramaiah Cupboard permitted an inner reservation matrix based mostly on the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee report. This matrix deviates from earlier suggestions, in addition to the matrix put forth by the earlier Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP authorities.

Below the system, of the entire 17 p.c reservation for SCs, teams recognized by the fee as SC-Proper and SC-Left have been given an elevated allocation of 6 p.c every, and Class C, known as ‘touchables’, has been given 5 p.c.

These 59 micro teams have been clubbed inside Class C, together with large teams like Banjara, Lambani, Kormi and Kurcha, who’re among the many most politically represented and influential teams. This clustering, they are saying, leaves the micro-communities with little probability of overcoming their social, financial, instructional, and political backwardness.

These teams are asking the federal government to lift the inner reservation to 18 p.c for all SCs, as that may give these teams no less than 1 p.c to be shared amongst them.

Whereas the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress has championed social justice and advocated for a nationwide caste census, the Holeya-led SC-Proper group and the SC-Left Madiga group—to which get together president Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka meals minister Ok.H. Muniyappa belong, respectively—have secured a bigger share of inner reservations, limiting Siddaramaiah’s capability to accommodate these micro-communities.

“These communities are among the many most susceptible and they have a uncooked deal on this whole course of. They’re asking that 0.5 p.c from every of the three classes be taken out and given to them,” C.S. Dwarkanath, chairman of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC’s) social justice division, advised ThePrint.

“The federal government might have simply raised the SC inhabitants from 17 p.c to 18 p.c and allotted the extra to them no less than,” the previous head of the Karnataka State Fee for Backward Courses added.


Additionally Learn: A seer ‘who misplaced his manner’ exposes a Lingayats vs Hindutva rift in Karnataka amid caste census


‘Uncooked deal’ 

In accordance with the 2011 Census, SCs make up 17.5 per cent of Karnataka’s inhabitants, whereas Scheduled Tribes (STs) account for six.95 p.c. Of the state’s 224 meeting constituencies, 36 are reserved for SCs and 15 for STs.

The Holeya-led SC-Proper and Madiga-led SC-Left communities are among the many most influential and politically represented inside the SC classes.

Among the many microcommunities, the Mala Hannai group has simply eight individuals and the Kepmari six, in response to knowledge from the Nagamohan Das Fee report, making them extraordinarily susceptible and with none safety.

“The phrase social justice shouldn’t come out of Siddaramaiah’s mouth. He claims to be with these extraordinarily oppressed courses… These are communities who’re thought-about untouchables by the untouchables. He took away all the pieces from these communities for the sake of politics,” a Congress chief complained.

In accordance with stories, the survey of SCs discovered that the ‘Left’ communities account for about 33.47 p.c of the SC inhabitants, ‘Proper’ communities 32 p.c, ‘Touchables’ 23.64 p.c and ‘Others’ 4.65 p.c. Many survey respondents reportedly refused to reply. It estimated that there have been about 25 ‘Proper-hand’ communities and 20 ‘Left-hand’ ones.

The idea of ‘Left’ and ‘Proper-hand’ castes goes again to medieval occasions and was as soon as prevalent in a lot of South India. In Karnataka, consultants say those that are actually thought-about ‘Left’ have been traditionally among the many most oppressed, in comparison with others (now ‘Proper’) who had considerably larger privileges.

In accordance with the Nagamohan Das panel report, all these 59 communities have a complete inhabitants of simply over 5.22 lakh. Nonetheless, there may be not a single political consultant from these communities, even in a Grama Panchayat, not to mention on the state stage, Basavaraj says.

These communities held an illustration in Bengaluru on 3 September and one other in Delhi final week. Siddaramaiah met with the group representatives in Bengaluru on 4 September.

A number of individuals within the get together and different political leaders who spoke to ThePrint stated that the CM has been making an attempt to battle many fires inside his Cupboard, together with with the continuing caste census, drying up coffers, stress to get replaced and different issues, with no time for a scattered group of communities with no social or political capital.

‘Don’t steal from our plates’

The Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities is conducting its socio-economic and academic survey for a second time in a decade.

The caste census has uncovered the faultlines inside his personal authorities, with ministers from the Veerashaiva and Lingayat factions preventing amongst themselves.

Different dominant teams just like the land-owning agrarian Vokkaligas, too, have expressed their reservations over the train. The BJP and its ally the Janata Dal (Secular) have opposed the train and referred to as it an train to divide society for political beneficial properties.

Leaders like Tejasvi Surya have requested that the Brahmin group which he belongs to, boycott the survey since it’s “voluntary”.

Making issues worse for Siddaramaiah is his choice to try to embrace the Kurubas, a shepherding group from which he hails, into the Scheduled Tribes (ST) fold.

“I do know Siddaramaiah didn’t do that, however Basavaraj Bommai advisable Kurubas to be included in ST. We don’t wish to be egocentric, however please don’t steal from our plates (reservation),” V.S. Ugrappa, a senior Congress chief and shut aide of Siddaramaiah, stated on the Valmiki Jayanthi celebrations in Raichur Tuesday whereas the CM was on stage with him.

“We is not going to attain into your plates. I’m not the one who did foot marches and protests to incorporate Kurubas in ST. This was carried out by (former BJP chief Ok.S.) Eshwarappa,” Siddaramaiah responded to Ugrappa.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)


Additionally Learn: Siddaramaiah’s push to incorporate Kurubas in ST fold ruffles complicated caste dynamics in Karnataka


 


Source link

Leave A Comment

you might also like