Sadashiva panel report gathers dust, Cong leaves it to Centre

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka appears to have decided to leave the implementation of the Justice AJ Sadashiva Commission report to the Centre.

This is rather surprising as no less than three Dalit ministers have been pushing for the implementation of the report, which recommends internal sub-categorisation under the Scheduled Caste (SC) quota for different groups of Dalits.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared in a poll rally in neighbouring Telangana on November 11 that he would look into the demands for internal reservation for Dalits.

The Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) had put forth the demand in Telangana.

In the backdrop of the statements, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa and Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa had lobbied with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah so that the report be accepted.

In fact, Muniyappa, a seven-time MP from Kolar, who comes from the Madiga caste, had earlier called for state-wide protests if the report was not implemented.

However, the maintenance of the status quo vis a vis the report is being justified with a technicality.

The erstwhile BJP State government in Karnataka had effectively rejected the Sadashiva Commission’s recommendations but accepted some suggestions of a Cabinet sub-committee on the issue and relayed the directions to the Union government.

Therefore, the current state appears to be that the Basavaraja Bommai administration had partially accepted the report.

The ruling Congress is waiting for the Centre to respond.

Report languishing since 2012

The Sadashiva Commission was set up back in 2005 under the Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by Dharam Singh and was finally submitted to the BJP government in 2012.

The report concluded that ritually right-hand Dalits namely Holeyas alongside “touchable” nomadic SCs like Bhovis and Lambanis had been cornering the quota.

It had added that ritually left hand Dalits like Madigas, apart from smaller castes had been deprived. There are a total of 101 castes under the 15 per cent SC quota in Karnataka right now.

The report disclosed that Holeyas and its 24 sub-castes constitute 32.01 per cent of the SC population. Madigas and its 29 sub-castes are 33.47 per cent.

“Touchable” nomadic castes are about 23.64 per cent while others are 4.65 per cent.

The Bommai government had in October 2022, accepted the recommendations of Nagamohan Das Commission report to hike the SC quota from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and the ST quota was to be raised from 3 per cent to 7.5 per cent.