First, a windfall of freebies, then the revival of icons, and now invoking of the regional identity and the push for a new religion; in the run up to the 2018 assembly polls, the ruling Congress in Karnataka is hoping to get a head start.
A glance at the last one year is a tell-all. The Siddaramaiah government has been candid about its ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits) appeasement, and the budget allocations had a lion's share marked for the marginalised classes, which remain the major vote bank of the Congress.
Besides, a huge allocation of Rs 27,703 crore for the benefit of 'marginal communities' in the budget 2017-18, free bus passes to poor students (costing Rs 104 crore a year), full scholarships to poor students, foreign junket for 1,000 agricultural labourers and a hike in subsidy (now Rs 3 lakh) to help SC/ST youth buy taxis were the new additions to the populist 'bhagya schemes'—free rice for BPL families (anna bhagya), free milk for school children (ksheera bhagya) and laptop bhagya for 1.5 lakh college students belonging to poor families.
The sudden announcement of the farm loan waiver by Siddaramaiah was a well calculated move to corner the state BJP. The state government's waiver on loans up to Rs 50,000 availed from co-operative banks will benefit as many as 2,22,7,506 farmers, while costing the exchequer Rs 8,165 crore. However, the Congress leaders have now raised the pitch for a similar waiver from the Centre on loans availed from the commercial banks, which make up 80 per cent of all farm loans.
Reasserting his commitment to social justice, Siddaramaiah has piloted several new legislations for the benefit of the poor. Karnataka is now the second state to implement a law that mandates special component plan (SCP) and tribal sub plan (TSP) fund allocation based on the population of SC/ST which is 24.1 per cent. During the BJP government, nearly Rs 21, 000 crore was spent under the scheme. But after the law was enacted, Rs 86,000 crore was spent in the last four years. Another law that mandates 24.1 per cent reservation for SC/STs in the civil contracts of the government for works up to Rs 50 lakh now has the President's assent.
To grant land ownership to the marginalised groups, Siddaramaiah has initiated the process of awarding title deeds to the poor families residing across 58,000 dwelling units like thandas and hattis in the state. The government has taken up appointment of pourakarmikas on a permanent basis and scrapped outsourcing to ensure minimum wages and prevent exploitation by middlemen and contractors. As many as 11,500 pourakarmikas will benefit from this.
The recently concluded international conference—Quest for equity: reclaiming justice, revisiting Ambedkar—was an effort to resurrect the dalit icon, as much as the maiden Kempe Gowda celebrations hosted by the government in June this year to woo the vokkaliga community.
The Congress falling back on the caste matrix was also evident when the party decided to retain G. Parameshwara (a dalit leader) as the KPCC chief, while appointing S.R. Patil, a lingayat leader from north Karnataka as its second working president, along with Dinesh Gundu Rao. Vokkaliga strongman D.K. Shivakumar was appointed the campaign committee chairman.
The Congress is trying hard to garner the support of the majority and dominant communities too ahead of the crucial polls. The euphoria behind the birth anniversary celebrations of Ambedkar, Tipu Sultan, Valmiki, Ambigara Chowdiah, Kempegowda or Hema Reddy Mallamma is said to be a poll tactic to consolidate the caste votes. A masterstroke of the Congress was its recent endorsement of the separate religion status for the lingayat community—a traditional vote bank of the BJP. Prior to this, the ruling Congress had taken baby steps to unsettle the BJP and its state chief lingayat strongman Yeddyurappa by making the display of Basavanna's portrait compulsory at all government offices. It had also renamed the sole women's university in the state after Akka Mahadevi, a 12th century social reformer and poet from the Veerashaiva Bhakti movement.
Five ministers volunteering to mobilise opinion from the community by way of a state wide tour, the BJP suspects, is a ploy of the Congress party to break the lingayat community ahead of the 2018 assembly polls by dangling the minority community tag, which brings with it a whole host of concessions and freedom from scrutiny of lingayat mutts and educational institutions. It is a Congress-engineered move to take lingayats into the ahinda fold, accuse the BJP leaders.
The chief minister's vocal support for a separate state flag or the opposition to the usage of Hindi language at Metro stations and mooting domicile reservation in higher education and employment are all aimed at evoking the regional identity as a counter to BJP's Hindutva agenda.
