Bengaluru: A meeting of prominent leaders of the Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva communities has urged the state government not to make the report of the caste census public as, they claimed, it was done in an unscientific manner.
If the government failed to accept their demand, people belonging to both communities would launch a statewide stir, they warned. The meeting also resolved to file a writ petition in the high court questioning the census carried out in the garb of conducting a social and economic study of every family, and seek a direction to the government not to publish the report.
A participant in the meeting told Deccan Chronicle that the meeting was apolitical with pontiffs, think tanks and officer bearers of all districts getting invitations. No politician was invited to the meeting.
He said speakers from both communities flayed the state government for taking up the caste census despite a direction from the Supreme Court against holding such a census as it would create a division in society.
They said the population of Veerashaiva community was around 1.5 crore and that of Vokkaliga community around 1 crore. But, according to leaked information of the census, the population of Veerashaivas and Vokkaliga had been shown as 65 lakh and 55 lakh respectively.
This has been done deliberately to mislead these communities. In the name of AHINDA, the Siddaramaiah government was trying to finish off the two majority communities, the leader said.
“We are not against extending benefits to oppressed classes but their appeasement in the name of uplifting them is not acceptable. Poor people are there in all communities and they should be given government facilities on par with the SCs/STs and backward classes,” he said.
He pointed out that the government was trying to create an impression that SCs/STs are at first position and Muslims, second in terms of population. This was being done to corner the powerful Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva communities.
Community leaders warned the government not to play with the sentiment of the two upper caste communities as they are capable of teaching a right lesson to the Congress in the Assembly polls.
The speakers contended that the census was incomplete since enumerators had not visited thousands of houses in Bengaluru city. In the districts, many deputy commissioners have not furnished details yet. In these circumstances, they were not ready to accept the report.
Prominent among those who participated in the meeting included former MLC Thippanna from Veerashaiva Sabha and Venkatesh Gowda from the Vokkaliga Sangha.
