Cornered over scam allegations, Siddaramaiah dangles ‘caste census’ carrot, but will it backfire?

With the chorus for making the report public gaining momentum, the Congress’ divided house has yet again been thrust into the spotlight. Saying that the CM himself raised the issue in Raichur on Saturday, Congress MLC B K Hariprasad who attended the meeting on Monday said the government should make the report public even if it threatens the government’s stability.

“If you are wary that the government may collapse if the report is accepted, let it happen … None of the other parties have shown the will to take it up. The responsibility of accepting the report falls on the Siddaramaiah government,” he said.

On Saturday, Siddaramaiah said, “The first-of-its-kind survey was taken up in Karnataka and will be discussed in the Cabinet meeting on October 18.”

A few other Congress leaders, including Home Minister G Parameshwara, have adopted a more cautious approach, saying the Cabinet will first discuss the matter and then “decide if the report will be tabled in the Assembly”. Karnataka PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi has called for the report to be tabled in the House, saying, “A wide discussion on the issue will help address any shortcomings.”

For Siddaramaiah, tabling the caste census report helps bolster the counter-narrative that through the MUDA case, the BJP and the JD(S) are attempting to dislodge a CM like him who belongs to a Backward Class community. The CM is also believed to be keen to publicise the report as he aspires to a legacy equivalent to the state’s great OBC leader and former Congress CM Devaraj Urs.

When the committee headed by Karnataka State Backward Class Commission Chairman K Jayprakash Hegde submitted the in February, it exposed the divide in the Congress as Deputy CM D K Shivakumar who is from the Vokkaliga community signed a petition against it following opposition from the Vokkaligara Sangha and the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, which termed the caste survey “unscientific” and “inaccurate”.

If the party leaders in favour of publicising the report push too hard on this, they are likely to antagonise both the Vokkaligas and the Lingayats, the two most dominant communities in the state. But sitting on the report may weaken Siddaramaiah’s position among the groups that propelled him to power for a second term.

The latest push for tabling the report has drawn criticism from Opposition parties Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP, which labelled it a “gimmick” by the government to divert attention from its wrongdoings.

While Union Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy called the move a “drama”, state BJP chief B Y Vijayendra accused Siddaramaiah of playing an “emotional card” and emphasised that a section of Congress leaders had termed the report “unscientific”.

“The government has employed tactics to divert people’s attention whenever it has faced grave allegations … In the wake of the MUDA scam, they are talking about the caste census to hide their misdeeds,” Kumaraswamy said.

The caste census in Karnataka was first undertaken by a panel headed by H Kantharaj during Siddaramaiah’s first term in 2014 at a cost of Rs 169 crore and a report on it was submitted after many delays in 2018. The report was neither accepted nor made public.