During a press conference held on Tuesday in Mysuru, BJP MLC and former Minister A.H. Vishwanath launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing him of playing the ‘Kuruba card’ solely for his own political survival.
Vishwanath asserted that Siddaramaiah’s recent initiative to revive the proposal for including the Kuruba community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list is a calculated political maneuver. According to him, this move is designed to undermine Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is reportedly eager to assume the Chief Minister’s position.
Both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and MLC Vishwanath hail from the Kuruba community, currently classified under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
Vishwanath recalled that the idea of including Kurubas in the ST list was initially floated during former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s tenure, with an ethnographic study also being conducted. However, he criticized Siddaramaiah’s current government for merely forwarding the recommendation to the Union government instead of the Registrar General of India, implying a lack of genuine commitment.
He further alleged that Siddaramaiah shows little interest in the actual inclusion of Kurubas in the ST list, suggesting that the Chief Minister leverages the community’s support only when facing political difficulties, despite having made no substantial contributions to their welfare.
The Controversy of a Fresh Caste Census
Vishwanath also commented on the caste census carried out by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, led by Mr. Kantharaj. He noted that the report was well-received but claimed that Siddaramaiah lacked the ‘courage’ to endorse it. Consequently, the report was left untouched for a decade before the government decided to discard it and opt for an entirely new census.
Addressing the formation of new castes to acknowledge converts, the BJP MLC argued against the necessity of categories like “Kuruba Christian.”
“Once an individual embraces Christianity, they become a Christian,” he stated, emphasizing that there’s no need to retain their previous caste identity. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that conversion is a fundamental democratic right.
In closing, Vishwanath expressed support for the government’s decision to invite writer Banu Mushtaq to inaugurate Dasara and welcomed the High Court’s dismissal of petitions challenging this choice.