BENGALURU: Lingayat leaders led by All-India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Belagavi on Friday and urged him to conduct a fresh caste survey scientifically.
Ministers MB Patil, Eshwar Khandre and Shivanand Patil were among the leaders from the community, who accompanied Shivashankarappa.
They told Siddaramaiah that the previous caste survey was conducted by Kantharaj Commission about eight years ago. Considering that the census is conducted every 10 years, they sought to know the need for using the eight-year-old data now.
The big question, however, is why are the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, the two politically powerful communities, opposing this report?
In a petition to Siddaramaiah, the Mahasabha stated that there are many shortcomings and inaccuracies in the report which should be rectified. Hence, it would be better if a fresh survey is conducted.
The Mahasabha leaders said during their meetings at taluk and district levels, they received complaints that the survey officials did not visit houses and also did not seek requisite details from the people of their community.
Many did not inform the officials that they were Lingayats but had only given them details of their sub-castes within the community. The officials did not do any cross-verification of the details collected. These shortcomings should be set right by conducting a fresh survey.
Former Backward Commission chairman CS Dwarakanath said, “It would be better if bigger communities expressed concern over smaller communities. If they (Lingayats) behave this way, what will happen to smaller communities? It is ironic that in ‘Basavanna’s bhoomi Belgaum’, they raised these objections.’’
“It is ironic that these Lingayat leaders placed this demand on the concluding day of the session. It could have been taken up for discussion during the session,’’ a few BC leaders said.
BJP MLC AH Vishwanath said, “This attitude of Lingayats and Vokkaligas over the report is not surprising. Even in the past, they responded aggressively when such reports were submitted. One such report was torn by Lingayats and Vokkaligas. When no one has read this report how can anyone say it is unscientific?’’