As the Assembly elections draw near in Karnataka, the ruling BJP government has had to perform a balancing act, with pressure mounting from various influential caste groups to rationalise reservation in proportion to their population. Bowing to pressure from the most politically influential Other Backward Class (OBC) communities in Karnataka, the state government has created two new categories in the existing reservation matrix for the Lingayats and Vokkaligas. With this, the two communities will be shifted from the 3A and 3B categories into the newly created 2C and 2D respectively. Both groups had launched fierce campaigns to increase reservations over the past few months.
The government has not yet announced the exact percentage of reservations that will be allotted to these groups.
“We are making only two categories – one is SC/ST and the other is 'Two'. We are not changing the reservation or the number of people in the 2A and 2B categories. Instead, we are creating 2C and 2D categories," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy said. Speaking about the percentage of reservation that will be allocated for these new categories, he said they would determine the percentage to be allocated for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota (10% reservation) based on their population and then allot the remaining percentage to the newly added categories.
Only those communities who are not covered under any reservation qualify as EWS, and based on the 1992 Supreme Court judgement, they are eligible for up to 10% reservation. As the population of such groups is low in Karnataka, EWS is not expected to be given the full 10% quota.
As Karnataka elections close in, the ruling BJP government is experiencing intense pressure from various communities for representation in education and employment. Since the government announced that the reservation quota will be increased for SCs from 15% to 17% and STs from 3% to 7%, several communities reignited their demands for re-categorisation.
The Panchamasali sub-caste of the Lingayat community, who were previously under the 3B category (OBC), had been agitating to be included under the 2A category, claiming that the “dominant” Veerashaiva Lingayat sub-castes were cornering the benefits of reservation. They also claimed that despite making up a majority of the Veerashaiva Lingayat community, they lacked political representation. They led a massive rally to Belagavi where the winter session of the Assembly was underway, to demand re-categorisation. The Karnataka State OBC Welfare Association and the Karnataka State Federation of Backward Class Communities threatened legal action if the Panchamasalis were included in the 2A group. They argued that it would be unfair to the other deprived communities in the group.
Meanwhile, the Vokkaligas have sought to include three sub-castes — Kunchitigas, Reddy Vokkaligas and Bunts — in the central OBC list. Vokkaliga groups argue that these communities consist of peasant farmers and that they are denied opportunities. They also wanted reservation for the Vokkaliga community to be increased from the current 4% to 12%. Several ministers within the ruling BJP government backed the demand as well, including Health Minister K Sudhakar, Revenue Minister R Ashoka and Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan, who are from the community.
Until 1977, the Kuruba or shepherd community in Karnataka was categorised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST). But the Backward Class commission under Justice LG Havanur removed the ST tag and brought the community under the OBC category. The community’s demand to be included as an ST is decades-long, and it has regained momentum over the past few years. Now, with the increased reservation for STs, the demand has surfaced again. Most recently, Small Scale Industries Minister MTB Nagaraj — who is a Kuruba himself — called for a bi-partisan discussion for the ST tag for the community and said that he would bring it up in the Assembly.
During his tenure as Chief Minister, Congress leader Siddaramaiah who belongs to the Kuruba community, promised them that he would send a recommendation for their inclusion under the ST category. The promise came with a caveat that it would be done after the results of the caste census (undertaken by his government in 2015) were released. However, the numbers have not been released even to this day.
On Wednesday, December 28, protestors of the Karnataka Pradesh Kurubara Sangha (KPKS) reached Belagavi to agitate in front of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha and Ministers MTB Nagaraj and Kota Srinivas Poojary went to pacify them. There, the protestors surrounded them and demanded to speak to Siddaramaiah. While the ministers agreed to their request, KPKS threatened to continue their agitation if their demands were not met, The New Indian Express reported.
The Kadu Gollas are legally clubbed with the Golla community (OBC), but these predominantly forest dwellers have been seeking to be re-classified as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) for decades. They argue that their culture and tradition are drastically different from the Gollas, who are seen as the “dominant” community and cornering the benefits of the reservation for themselves.
Congress leader Siddaramaiah recently raised the matter in the Assembly and said that his government sent a recommendation to the Union government for the same in 2014. He blamed the BJP government for not following it up. “Kadu Gollas, by virtue of their culture and lifestyle, have all the requirements (to be classified as) a tribal community,’’ he said.
On December 27, Madhuswamy said in the Assembly that the state government would try and convince the state government for an ST tag for the Kadu Gollas by February 2023.
In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld a constitutional amendment that allowed for a 10% reservation quota for Economic Weaker Sections (EWS) of the general category. This can only be availed by communities that don’t fall under any other reservation category. In November, Madhuswamy had indicated that the state government would introduce a law that would provide for this. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also reiterated this, saying, “Now that the court has given its verdict, EWS quota will be implemented throughout the country. Karnataka will also implement it soon. This verdict is a ray of hope for lakhs of poor people who have been denied opportunities as they neither had reservation in education nor in jobs.”
Many have criticised the implementation of this, as only five communities are eligible for the EWS quota in Karnataka — Brahmins, Jains, Aryavaishyas, Nagarthas and Modaliars. They make up an estimated 4% of the population, and this would make them overrepresented in education and government jobs.
Over the past few months, the demand for internal reservation among the Scheduled Castes (SC) has escalated. Several Dalit groups have re-ignited the demand to implement the Justice AJ Sadashiva Commission report, which suggested the re-classification of 101 SC communities into four categories. While the report was submitted to the DV Sadananda Gowda government in 2012, it was not acted upon by any chief minister. Siddaramaiah, during his tenure, had promised to implement it, but allegedly did not table it due to internal pressure.
Now, the movement is seeing unprecedented participation. For the first time in years, factions of the Dalita Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) came together on December 6 to observe Dr Ambedkar’s death anniversary in Bengaluru. Here, a unanimous resolution was passed, demanding the Karnataka government provide for internal reservation for SCs and STs in accordance with their population. The latest wave of protests is largely led by the Madiga community, and several Dalit groups took out a padayatra last month from the gravesite of DSS founder Professor B Krishnappa in Davanagere. The yatra ended at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on December 11, where police lathi-charged the protestors, grievously injuring some of them and around 200 of the protestors were detained.
When the groups threatened to continue agitating until their demands were met, including implementing the resolutions of the December 6 convention, the state government constituted a five-member committee to make recommendations on implementing internal reservations. The sub-committee is headed by Madhuswamy and consists of Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, Fisheries Minister S Angara, Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan and Health Minister K Sudhakar.