‘Not caste census, but socio-economic survey’: Karnataka ministers amid non-tabling of report

BENGALURU: Amid chaos over the state government not tabling the caste survey report, Industries Minister M B Patil on Thursday said that they have noted that certain sub-castes in the Lingayat community have registered as Hindus owing to the reservation policy. He further clarified that this was a “caste survey” undertaken by the state government and it was the prerogative of the central government to undertake caste census.

“Nothing has gone wrong. We don’t know what is inside the caste census (report). First of all, this is not a caste census. It can only be done by the Government of India. This is merely a caste survey. As far as the Lingayat community is concerned, we have noted that there are many sub-castes in the community. Because of reservation the sub-castes have registered as Hindus, but they are part of the Lingayat community”, Patil told reporters.

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On caste census, Karnataka minister MB Patil says, “…We don’t know what is inside the caste census, what they have done. First of all, there cannot be a caste census. The caste census can be only done by the government of India. It is not a census, it is a… pic.twitter.com/a7C7Fu18KH

— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2025

He said that there was a need to bring the sub-castes of the Lingayat community under one roof for counting or else it would be “unjust”. The minister said that if the report was prepared correctly, there would be no issues. “Otherwise, we will ask the Chief Minister to set it right”, he added.

“We need to bring them under one roof and count them and then only the true picture will come out. This is my demand. Otherwise, it would be an injustice. If the number of Lingayats (65,000) doesn’t include them (those who registered as Hindus), it is a wrong thing. If the report has been prepared correctly, we have no issues”, Patil said.

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On caste census, Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge says, “It is not a caste census report but a socio-economic survey report. No one knows what are the findings of the report. Let it be tabled in the Cabinet whenever it is scheduled and then we can discuss… pic.twitter.com/Tv6pLIOzg6

— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2025

Meanwhile, Minister Priyank Kharge also clarified that it was “not a caste census” report, but a socio-economic survey report. He further said that it was not right for him to comment since he didn’t know what the report entails.

“This is not a caste-census report, but a socio-economic survey report. Nobody knows about the findings of the report. Let it be tabled in the cabinet, whenever it is scheduled. It is not right for me to comment on the report since I don’t know what it is in it. We will table the report soon. The report was already done, two years ago. BJP would have (released) it, but they didn’t. We will do it, eventually”, Kharge said. (ANI)