Karnataka: Congress to hold 'unity convention' to woo SC/ST communities ahead of assembly polls

The BJP government's decision to hike the SC/ST quota in an election year has rattled the opposition Congress in Karnataka. The grand old party, on Wednesday, announced a 'Aikyate Samavesha' (unity convention) in Chitradurga on January 8, 2023, in a bid to woo the SC/ST communities. The convention will be attended by AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and one of the three members of the Gandhi family.

While the intent of holding the convention is to counter the BJP, the Dalit leaders from the Congress exclusively addressing the press meet in Bengaluru also hint at the convention possibly turning into a show of strength and unity among the Dalit leaders.

Dalit leaders in the Congress are also wary of the different factions within the party projecting KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, and CLP leader Siddaramaiah, a Kuruba, as the next chief minister, while sidelining the Dalit leaders.

Former deputy chief minister G. Parameshwara, who admitted that the convention aims to bring the leaders of the community together to reassure them that the Congress was with them, did not rule out the possibility of demanding that a Dalit be made the chief minister if the party were to a majority.

"We are a national party and we will certainly place our demand before the high command at the right time," said Parameshwara during the press meet which was attended by K.H. Muniyappa, Dr H.C. Mahadevappa, Satish Jarkiholi, and V.S. Ugrappa among others.

Launching an attack on the ruling BJP, Parameshwara said the saffron party was falsely claiming credit for enhancing the SC/ST quota.

"The BJP is today going around claiming to have enhanced the SC quota from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and ST from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. But it was during the coalition government that the Justice Nagamohan Das Committee was constituted to examine the demand to increase the ST quota to 7 per cent. But before we could implement the (committee) report, the coalition government collapsed. The BJP is taking credit for our work," said Parameshwara.

He asked the government to bring the new quota law under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution failing which the law would be untenable.

Elaborating on the quota hike politics, the Koratagere MLA said the SC/ST communities accounted for 24.1 per cent of Karnataka's population, which makes it almost 1.5 crore people. “If the SC community has 101 different caste groups, ST has 52 groups. So, there has been a concerted effort to divide and rule us. The Dalit leaders in the Congress consider it our responsibility to caution our community against such gimmicks and reassure them that our party will stand with them to genuinely address all their issues," said Parameshwara, adding that it was the previous Congress government led by Siddaramaiah that had passed a law mandating a budget allocation of 24.1 per cent (proportionate to the SC/ST population) of the total budget.

"The unspent SCP/TSP funds had to be carried forward to the next year. The JD(S)-Congress coalition government too adhered to the norm. But the BJP government, which is in power for the last three years, violated the law and has set aside a budget of a mere Rs 28 crore against the stipulated Rs 42,000 crore in a budget outlay of Rs 2.63 lakh crore," said Parameshwara.

He added that several issues, including the current BJP government denying scholarships to SC/ST students and reservations in civil contracts, would be raised at the convention.

Asserting that caste-based reservation was not alms but the right of every Dalit, Parameshwara said that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had hoped that reservation would help bring Dalits, who were socially, educationally and economically backward, to the mainstream. "While Babasaheb had advocated for reservation for a 10-year period, the subsequent governments have had to extend the reservation as it has still not accomplished its purpose of empowering the oppressed classes. As long as the social inequalities exist, reservation will be necessary though there is a growing tendency of some people to criticise and debate the relevance and need for reservation."

Earlier, Parameshwara slammed the JD(S) and the BJP leaders camping overnight at a Dalit home calling it a "gimmick".
"The Congress urges the SC/ST communities not to fall for this gimmick. The political parties which refused to put up the portrait of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar are today visiting Dalits' homes, staying overnight but having food bought from a hotel," mocked Parameshwara.