Over a dozen prominent leaders of the Madiga community in Karnataka, who have been at the forefront of the fight for internal reservations within the Scheduled Caste category, joined the Congress on Tuesday, March 21. This is significant because the exodus of the Madiga community to the BJP in the last elections in 2018 proved costly for the Congress, particularly for senior Dalit leaders in the party such as G Parameshwar and Mallikarjun Kharge, both of whom belong to the Holeya community. Late on Monday evening, the Congress released a list of 21 leaders from across the state, 16 of whom are from the Madiga and allied communities. This marks a major political shift which is expected to have an impact beyond Karnataka. Over the last two decades, the BJP had made significant inroads within the Madiga community not just in Karnataka but in other southern states as well.
The group that joined the Congress includes many state-level leaders from the Madiga Reservation Horata Samithi (MRHS), an organisation comprised primarily of Madigas, which has been at the forefront of the decades-old demand for internal reservations within the SC category. Those from MRHS include Ambanna Arolikar (MRHS state leader), Thimmappa Alkur (MRHS Raichur district leader) and Rajanna (MRHS Chitradurga district leader). The failure of the previous Siddaramaiah-led government to introduce internal reservations based on the recommendations of the AJ Sadashiva Commission was the main reason for the exodus of the Madigas in 2018.
The Sadashiva Commission report divided the SC communities into four broad categories based on socio-economic status, vulnerability, representation in education, jobs, and other parameters. The categories were Holeyas (right ‘untouchable’), Madigas (left ‘untouchable’), non-Holeya and non-Madiga ‘untouchable’ castes and other ‘touchable’ castes like Lambani and Bhovi, Korama and Koracha. Based on this categorisation, the then 15% reservation for Scheduled Castes in state employment was to be divided according to each group’s proportion in the population.
Although many top Madiga leaders, particularly Basavamurthy Swami of the Madara Chennaiah Gurupeetha Math in Chitradurga district, continue to be firmly behind the BJP, this move is bound to hurt the standing of the saffron party at the hustings. One of the promises that the BJP used to win over the Madigas was that the Bommai government would implement the Sadashiva Commission recommendations. The party's failure to do so, despite being in power at the national level, is being seen as the primary trigger for Tuesday's shift to Congress.
Congress leaders, however, downplayed the role of the internal reservations demand in this development. The party is expectedly guarded on the internal reservations issue considering that special legislation of this sort would require the support of the government in New Delhi.
Congress sources claimed that there were larger issues relating to misgovernance at the state and national levels that have hit Dalits the hardest. Party sources were keen to point out that there were leaders from the Holeya community too, who were part of this move to the Congress such as B Gopal, former State Bahujan Samaj Party president and senior state Dalit leader, AD Eshwarappa (Davanagere district), Pandit Munivenkatappa (Ambedkar Sene state leader), Prabhakar Chalavadi Teradal (Belagavi district) and Shivappa Dinnekere (Hassan district).
“The Dalit leaders are now convinced that these communities will get justice only from the Congress. Therefore, after a lot of discussions with Congress leaders that they should provide justice to these communities, they are joining the party,” said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Manifesto Committee head G Parameshwar. Parameshwar also called for a statewide protest against the injustice, details of which will be announced soon.
“This day is a historic day for the Karnataka Congress since Dalit leaders from both left and right are here. The leaders who had left Congress have returned and this is not an ordinary situation. It is a sign that if there are forces who want to destroy the Constitution, then we will come together to defend it. We are here to give the message that we will protest against any injustices,” said Sudham Das.
“We have come here in support of Congress and the reason is that the BJP Union and state governments have deceived us. They said they would increase our reservation within one year of them coming to power and then claimed to pass a bill in the Assembly. Now we get an answer that the state government has not sent the bill to the Union government from the Parliament. We condemn the BJP government, we do not have any alternate motives than to protect the Constitution and hence we have joined hands with the left and Congress,” said B Gopal.
Speaking at the press meet on Tuesday, state Congress in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that the BJP government duped the Dalit communities on reservation. “According to a reply given by Union Minister of State A Narayanaswamy on March 14 in the Parliament, there is no proposal with the Government of India to increase SC reservation in terms of the Nagamohan Das committee from 15% to 17%,” he said.
He further added that the reply also said there was no proposal to enhance reservation for the Dalit communities in Karnataka from 3% to 7%, and the state government had not even submitted a proposal for increasing the reservation to the Union government. It was reported in December 2022 that the Karnataka government had tabled a bill in the Legislative Assembly to increase reservations for SC from 15% to 17% and ST from 3% to 7% in the state.
Former Minister KH Muniyappa said, “We have failed to fulfil Ambedkar's wish. But these leaders have fought a lot for the progress of Dalit communities. Their struggle has given us strength and the opportunity to ask questions when any injustice takes place against the Dalit communities.”