Siddaramaiah’s AHINDA push: Why he is talking about social justice again

With the Congress government in Karnataka headed by D K Shivakumar shifting to governance focused on infrastructure and less on issues of its core base of backward class, minority, and Dalit voters — known by the Kannada acronym AHINDA — former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is once again at the centre stage of rallying the AHINDA base.Over the last few weeks, the former CM Siddaramaiah has participated in multiple events organised by Dalit and backward caste groups where he has called for the unity of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalits to ensure social justice for the depressed classes.On Sunday, Siddaramaiah is set to be the main speaker at a rally to mark 25 years of the Karnataka Other Backward Castes Federation. The event will also feature Deputy CM G Parameshwara, a Dalit whose candidature for the post was canvassed by Siddaramaiah and state Congress president B K Hariprasad, who is from an OBC community. The event is seen as part of efforts to revive the Congress’s social justice agenda, and although Siddaramaiah is headlining the event, it is not the former CM’s attempt at individual assertion of power, said Congress sources familiar with Sunday’s programme. Siddaramaiah stepped away from the public eye after handing over the CM’s mantle to Shivakumar on June 3. “There is a need to provide leadership to the AHINDA constituency once again. The states in the country where there have been strong social justice movements are the states that have resisted the right-wing political agenda,” said one of the Congress organisers involved with the Sunday event, titled “A Resolution for Equality”. One of the possible intents of the event and Siddaramaiah’s recent reassertions of his core political ideology of social justice is also seen as an indirect push for implementation of a state caste survey report that he accepted in his last week as CM. Shivakumar, his successor, belongs to the dominant Vokkaliga community and had previously opposed the state caste survey report. But he recently changed his stand and backed the survey. “Our government conducted a socio-economic survey and we are committed to implementing it to deliver social justice,” Shivakumar said on August 7 at a meeting of the Congress’s national OBC panel in Bengaluru. Why Siddaramaiah is unhappy There has been speculation that Siddaramaiah was not happy with developments in the Congress, including the shifting of allegiance of several of his close associates such as Satish Jarkiholi, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) leader, and Zameer Ahmed Khan to Shivakumar. The Congress leadership, however, persuaded the 78-year-old former CM with Cabinet positions for his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah and several of his supporters, leaving little room for rebellion. “There has been estrangement between Siddaramaiah and several of his close associates who left the JD(S) with him to join the Congress, such as Jarkiholi and Ahmed. He feels he was backstabbed by them when he was CM. They feel he put the interest of his son and community above them,” said a Congress source. Among the former CM’s close associates at present is Parameshwara. At a symposium on internal reservations for Dalits, organised by Dalit groups on August 25, Siddaramaiah was questioned on why he had not facilitated the appointment of a Dalit CM. “Do you know who made Parameshwara the Deputy Chief Minister in the current government? They were thinking that four or five people should be made Deputy Chief Ministers,” Siddaramaiah said. Parameshwara later confirmed it was Siddaramaiah’s push that landed him the post for the second time. Siddaramaiah’s recent statements At two separate meetings that Dalit groups organised in recent weeks, Siddaramaiah emphasised the need for equality and social justice in society and called for all depressed classes to unite. “I do not have any power. But I am someone who is in favour of internal reservation, in favour of the reservation system, and in favour of social justice. There has been no compromise in the past, and there will be no compromise in the future,” he said at the August 25 meeting. “Those who have been exploited and deprived of opportunities due to the caste system should get reservation. We are not stupid; we are deprived of opportunities. We did not get a chance to showcase our intelligence. The reservation system gives us this opportunity,” Siddaramaiah said. The next day, at the inauguration of a Shudra Seva Sangha in Bengaluru, the former CM said, “For the caste system to go, an egalitarian society must be created. The Shudra class was deprived of literacy and opportunities for many years. It is impossible for the Shudra class to compete with the upper castes. It is common for the illiterate to lose to the literate. If casteism is to go away, educated people must learn to think scientifically.” Siddaramaiah also participated in a protest over the Uttarakhand Police’s registration of an FIR against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s demand for answers from the BJP leadership over the Haldwani “purification” episode after an event attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress leaders in Karnataka said the former CM’s assertions on social justice and inequalities in society were not new and were part of his political position. “There is a need to remain active in politics, otherwise you can become irrelevant very soon in a party like the Congress, where someone else can take your position. This may be one of the reasons the former CM is speaking out again,” said a Congress official. “There is no need to read too much into Siddaramaiah’s participation in recent events and his statements. Siddaramaiah needs the Congress party and the party needs Siddaramaiah and they are working together,” said an OBC leader of the party. Among the speculation surrounding the Sunday event is that it could be a forum to help Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra take up the mantle of an OBC and Ahinda leader from his father. “The event is largely an event of the OBC Kuruba community (to which Siddaramaiah belongs), barring the attendance of Congress leader Hariprasad (who belongs to the OBC Idiga group) and Deputy CM Parameshwara,” said a source familiar with the event.