After Vokkaligara Sangha, Veerashaiva Mahasabha too demands redoing caste census 

Shortly after Vokkaligara Sangha, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha has also taken objection to the Socio-Economic and Education Survey, popularly called caste census, and demanded that the State government not accept its report. The Veerashaiva body has demanded that the entire exercise be redone.

Shortly after Vokkaligara Sangha, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha has also taken objection to the Socio-Economic and Education Survey, popularly called caste census, and demanded that the State government not accept its report. The Veerashaiva body has demanded that the entire exercise be redone.

The survey was conducted in 2015 during the previous tenure of the Congress.

These demands come even as Chairman of Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes K. Jayaprakash Hegde has said he would submit the report before his tenure ends on November 26, and the Congress has been batting for a nation-wide caste census. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also recently said that his government was committed to accepting the caste census report. 

Shamanur Shivashankarappa, senior-most Congress legislator and president of the mahasabha, issued a statement on Thursday saying the caste census report was not “exhaustive” and said to be “riddled with errors.”

“There are several complaints that the enumerators of this survey did not visit many households, which has reportedly led to undercount of the community. The survey is eight years old and riddled with errors. So we demand that the survey be conducted again in a transparent way, using the latest technology, enumerating every household,” the statement said.

Vokkaligara Sangha and prominent Vokkaliga seer Nirmalanandanatha Swami had also recently taken a similar stand, arguing there was a reported undercount of Vokkaligas and demanded that the government reject the survey report and reconduct the census. 

Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats, the two dominant land-owning communities who claim to be among the largest communities of the State numerically, have reportedly been found in the caste census to be fewer in numbers than assumed. The census reportedly shows Dalit communities and Muslims to the largest in the State. The land-owning communities fear the changed caste arithmetic will lead to diminishing their hold over State politics.