Ahead of the 2018 assembly polls, it is race for dalit appeasement in Karnataka. Both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP are leaving no stone unturned to woo the decisive dalit votes in the state. If the BJP's chief ministerial candidate and state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa has popularised 'breakfast meeting' at dalit households during his statewide-tour, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been churning out policies, programmes and legislations in favour of 'marginalised communities' to consolidate the Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits) votes.
While the huge dole-outs in the form of 'Bhagya schemes'—free rice to BPL families (Anna Bhagya), free milk to school children (Ksheera Bhagya) and 'Laptop Bhagya' to 1.5 lakh college students from poor families—are just a few among the bouquet of freebies, the latest effort was to resurrect the image of the dalit icon Dr B.R. Ambedkar with the international conference 'Quest for Equity—Reclaiming justice, revisiting Ambedkar'.
The Bengaluru Declaration adopted by the conference has recommended a slew of affirmative actions—reservation in private sector, judiciary, higher education, government contracts and promotions for dalits, legislations to ensure ownership for SC/STs, a living wage and social security scheme for labourers in the unorganised sector, apart from pension schemes.
The yet-to-be disclosed Socio-Economic Caste Census puts the dalits as the largest community in the state (at a population of 1.03 crore), dwarfing the size of dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities. While the latter two communities always held a sway in the state's politics, the dalit votes have become inevitable for capturing power.
The contentious survey also pegs the state population at six crore. Closely following the dalit population is the Muslim community at 75 lakh. With Kurubas pegged at 43.5 lakh, the Ahinda coalition can prove to be a challenge to politically strong Lingayat (59 lakh) and Vokkaliga (49) communities.
For a long time, the Lingayats were estimated to be 17 per cent of the population, while the Vokkaligas were 12 per cent. But the recent survey states that the Lingayats are only 9.8 per cent, while the Vokkaligas constitute a mere 8.2 per cent. The BJP and the JD(S) are crying foul alleging political manipulation by the Congress.
The survey has also altered the Congress' poll strategy, which was evident when the party high command decided to retain dalit leader Dr G. Parameshwara as the KPCC president, though he had held the post since October 2010.
A second political gesture was when the Congress high command chose Siddaramaiah as one of the proposers for the opposition's presidential nominee Meira Kumar, soon after the NDA chose Yeddyurappa as a proposer for the candidature of Ram Nath Kovind.
The Congress' dalit appeasement plan began with the state budget 2017-18, when Siddaramaiah announced schemes to the tune of Rs 27,703 crore for the benefit of the 'marginal communities'. Free bus passes to students from SC/ST communities (costing Rs 104 crore a year), full scholarships to poor students, foreign junket for 1,000 agricultural labourers belonging to SC/ST communities and a hike in subsidy (now Rs 3 lakh) to help SC/ST youth buy taxis were the additions to the Bhagya schemes.
The Siddaramaiah-government brought in a new legislation to ensure that the development expenditure for SC/STs is based on their population. The special component plan (SCP) and tribal sub plan (TSP), meant for the welfare of SC/STs, will now be 24.1 per cent of the total budget, proportionate to the SC/ST population in the state.
The Congress government amended the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Bill to make way for reservation aimed at helping SC/ST contractors procure government works without a tender process. The government moved 'The Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill' that provides for reservation in tender works for the Scheduled Castes at 17.15 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes at 6.95 per cent for all works costing less than Rs 50 lakh.
The bill was rejected by Governor Vajubhai Vala citing “violation” of the constitutional provision, as caste-based reservation is not allowed beyond education, employment and electoral representation. However, the bill got President Pranab Mukherjee's assent.
In a move to scrap contract labour, Siddaramaiah has initiated the process of making Pourakarmika appointments permanent in a phased manner. “This will benefit 11,500 pourakarmikas. They will now get a monthly salary of Rs 14,000 as per the minimum wages act and the salary will be directly transferred to their bank accounts to avoid misuse by contractors and middle men,” said Siddaramaiah.
