Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, September 29, lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and others calling for the boycott of the ongoing Social and Educational Survey, popularly called the “caste census”. He accused the BJP of adopting a “hypocritical” stand by calling for a boycott of the exercise.
In a statement, Siddaramaiah said that the survey being conducted by the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission was not limited to any particular caste or religion but aimed at studying the conditions of all seven crore people in the state. Officials stressed that the survey’s primary objective was to ensure social, economic, and educational equality and to guarantee fair opportunities for all communities.
Siddaramaiah’s remarks come in the wake of BJP’s Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, both Brahmins, stating that they will not participate in the survey.
“I am not participating in this. Will this government keep my data safe? For what purpose will this data be used and with what political malintent? I don’t trust this government,” Tejasvi Surya said.
“When the High Court has made it clear that citizens needn’t participate, I appeal to people...this so-called survey is being done just for political mileage. This (survey) won’t help any caste or the poor. So, please boycott this caste census, or this Siddaramaiah census. The High Court has allowed us to do that,” Surya said.
The Karnataka High Court recently passed an interim order on a batch of petitions challenging the Social and Educational Survey, and directed the government to make it clear to people that participation is voluntary.
Siddaramaiah accused BJP leaders of harbouring a “Manuvadi mindset” that sought to keep wealth, representation, and opportunities concentrated in the hands of a privileged few. “Through this survey, our government will understand not only the conditions of Dalits, backward classes, and minority communities, but also those of poor and deprived sections within forward castes too,” the government said.
Highlighting what it termed as the BJP’s “double standards,” the government pointed out that caste-based surveys had already been conducted in Bihar and Telangana without protest from the party. It also noted that the Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had itself initiated a caste census.
“The BJP leaders in Karnataka who oppose our state’s survey must answer whether they also oppose the caste census undertaken by their own Union government. If so, they should say it clearly before the Prime Minister,” the CM said.
Calling the BJP’s opposition “self-contradictory and politically motivated,” Siddaramaiah urged people to disregard such statements and cooperate with the survey process. “Together, let us build an equitable society and make Karnataka a garden of peace and harmony for all communities,” he said.
BJP leaders are not the only ones who have urged people not to participate in the survey. Prabhusarangadeva Shivacharya, the head of the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Shivacharya Samsthe, also made remarks similar to those by Tejasvi Surya regarding the HC order on voluntary participation.
“[After the HC case], surveyors cannot force people to give their information and the High Court has protected the privacy of people. Hence, we must boycott the government’s unscientific survey,” he was quoted as saying by Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka.
During a recent meeting of Other Backward Classes (OBC) leaders of the Congress, it was decided to create awareness about the survey by setting up district-level committees who would talk about the importance of the survey. Backward classes leaders of the Congress, including ministers, such as Byrathi Suresh, PR Ramesh, NS Boseraju, Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Ramesh Babu, AS Ponnanna, Madhu Bangarappa, Mankal Vaidya, Pradeep Eshwar, Santosh Lad, BK Hariprasad, HM Revanna, and Umashree, have been appointed as heads of these committees.
Karnataka passed the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission Act in 1995, complying with the Supreme Court’s directions in the Indra Sawhney judgement on setting up permanent backward classes commissions. Previous commissions appointed by the state government to look into reservations for the backward classes were ad hoc commissions set up under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1952.