Karnataka cabinet to take up caste census report amid internal opposition

The Cabinet that met at a special sitting in Bengaluru on Thursday evening to discuss the findings of the controversial caste census ended without a decision after sections of ministers found fault with the caste-wise data the report has revealed.

The Cabinet decided to again discuss the subject on May 2 where a decision is expected, Law & Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil told the media.

A few ministers representing the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities conveyed the sentiments of their community and religious heads, registering their protest at the Backward Classes Commission fragmenting their communities. The sub-caste wise dissection, they said, had suggested a sharp drop in the population of their communities while the reality was otherwise.


They had been upset that the enumerators had shown the entire Muslim population as one combined community without a sub-caste wise slicing, a treatment denied to other dominant communities.

The CM listened to his Cabinet colleagues for more than two hours and is learnt to have asked the ministers to give their opinions in writing.

Patil, the Law Minister, however, said the Cabinet has sought more information, including certain technical details from officials to take the discussions forward. "The discussions took place in a very cordial atmosphere," the minister said.

The Cabinet is meeting on April 24 at MM Hills in Chamarajanagar district, but that meeting will discuss only issues related to the region, Patil said.

"No one is opposed to delivering social justice," said Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, emerging from the Cabinet meeting.

Siddaramaiah is treading cautiously on the subject after the data of the report has left several communities unhappy including SCs, whose leaders have questioned inclusion of many unrecognised sub-castes into the group, expanding their population.

The CM placed the report before the Cabinet, last week, as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been advocating a nation-wide caste census.

Lingayat Ministers from North Karnataka MB Patil and Laxmi Hebbalkar have disagreed with the numbers. Lingayats population, Patil said, was more than 10 million in the state, far higher than what the report had indicated.