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Days after newspapers in Karnataka carried what they claimed were contents of the Karnataka Social and Educational Survey 2025, the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission (KSBC) has denounced what it calls attempts to “create mischief” similar to what had happened after the first such survey in 2015-16.
On May 28, English daily Deccan Herald and Kannada daily Kannada Prabha published reports on what they called the report’s findings. The DH article claimed it carried the report’s recommendations along with a mention of population figures of various communities. The Kannada Prabha article carried a sensational headline—“Muslims are No 1 in the state’s population”— that fuelled right-wing chatter online.
KSBC Chairman Madhusudan T Naik told TNM that he had received calls from people asking if these reports were true, which prompted him to issue the press release threatening “appropriate criminal proceedings” against people who shared “false and unauthorised information regarding the data of the survey or the report in the media and social media platforms”. The press release also said that sharing the commission’s findings without authorisation was also a violation of the Karnataka High Court’s orders in three writ petitions.
Naik had submitted the report to outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah a day before he resigned from office. Naik submitted the report to the CM on May 27. Photos of the event suggest that the report was submitted in a hurry.
Naik said, “Some mischievous statements have been made about the headcount (of various communities), but that data is not there in the report. It is being deliberately misused to create mischief and discredit the work of the commission. Someone is trying to confuse headcounts with the purpose of the survey, just as it was done during the previous survey.”
Siddaramaiah had tasked the Commission with conducting a socio-economic survey in 2015 in accordance with the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act 1995, which mandates that the commission must take the necessary steps to ensure that the list of communities for Other Backward Class (OBC) reservations is periodically revised.
Even before the Kantharaju commission report was submitted to the government, portions containing the population figures of various communities were leaked in April 2016. This set the tone for a deliberate and misguided focus – driven by dominant castes – both in the political establishment and in the media on the populations of various communities. This misconception lasted until the report was finally submitted to the government in February 2024 and until June 2025 when the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a press conference setting the record straight on why the survey was being conducted.
Read: Karnataka: Why junking of the 2015 caste survey is a big win for dominant castes
Naik said that the report did not contain the absolute numbers. “The report is based on responses to the survey. They cannot be considered as the populations of various communities.”
He declined to mention how many people had refused to participate in the survey, but maintained that the report contained detailed information about the number of people who had participated, refused to do so, were not reachable due to locked houses, etc.
Naik told TNM that the report was submitted to the government, which had kept it under lock and key, and that nobody had access to it until the new cabinet decides to take a look at it.
“I hope that the new government takes up the issue at the earliest so that (what happened last time) does not happen again. Once the government makes the report public, people will know (what the report really contains),” Naik said.