Dalit group: Anyone but Congress for 2018

State government is under pressure to implement the Sadashiva Committee recommendations on SC reservation.

The Karnataka Madiga Dandora has called on the state’s Madiga community to ditch the Congress party in the upcoming assembly elections slated to be held on May 12. This is because they are dissatisfied over the non-implementation of the Sadashiva Committee recommendations by the Siddaramaiah administration,

“We want to defeat the Congress. We’ve benefited very little from the Congress. We’re calling on the people of our community to vote for Madiga candidates who are from BJP or JD(S),” said Shankarappa G, the President of the Karnataka Madiga Dandora, a Dalit organization that represents the interests of the Madiga community in the state.

In 2012, the Sadashiva committee noted that the population of the Madiga and related castes had gone up noticeably. The committee also took into account the inequitable distribution of reservation benefits within the SC community. Therefore, the committee recommended internal reservation within the SC community reclassifying the 101 castes under SC into four groups—Right Community, Left Community, Touchables and Other Scheduled Castes communities—for equitable distribution of reservation benefits.

The committee carved out six per cent out (from the 15 per cent SC reservation quota) for the Left group which includes the Madiga community.

The government had promised to recommend the Sadashiva committee recommendations to the central government. However, the government hasn’t done so despite assurances.

We’ve watched the Congress for five years. We won’t believe their assurances and promises anymore,” said Shankarappa G

Madiga and related castes make up 57.4 per cent of the population in the state according to the L G Havanur committee report that came out in 1975, said the Karnataka Madiga Dandora.

On the basis of the Havanur committee, we have been fighting for the rights of the Madiga community since 1997. “We’ve been fighting this injustice for 21 years. No fruits yet. We’ve lost patience,” added Shankarappa G.

However, Shankarappa G admitted the Sadashiva committee’s full report is not in the public domain and therefore the group is not aware of the full details of the report. “We’ve never seen a copy of the Sadashiva report. But percentages (of the reclassification within SC) are in the public domain and we believe that,” said Shankarappa G.