Panchamasalis back to square one

Panchamasali reservation agitation committee honourary president Sri Basava Jaya Mrutyunjay Swami leads a ‘rasta roko’ protest on Pune-Bengaluru national highway against the lathi charge on the community members in Belagavi on December 12, 2024. Photo: Special Arrangement

Last week, Lingayat-Panchamasali activists protested before the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi of north Karnataka, where the winter session of the legislature was being held. The protest demanding the community’s inclusion under the 2-A category of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation list turned violent. But this is no new protest; it is a three-decade-old demand yet there is no sign of resolution.

The demand received a fillip under the seer of the Lingayat Panchamasali Peeth, Sri Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami, who was earlier actively involved in the movement for independent religion status for Lingayat faith. The movement has seen several highs and lows owing to the vacillating positions of community leaders and politicians.

The seer led a massive padayatra from Koodalasangama, an important centre of pilgrimage for Lingayats, to Bengaluru during the previous BJP regime and almost brought the government to its knees. Fully aware of the complexities involved in reclassification but not willing to invite the wrath of the dominant Lingayat-Panchamasali community, the government, led by Basavaraj Bommai, cleverly came out with a strategy to hit two birds with one stone.

Instead of stirring a hornet’s nest by tampering with the 2-A category, it carved out two more categories — 2-C and 2-D — to appease Panchamasalis and also the Vokkaligas who were demanding a greater share in the reservation pie at the time. And to capture the Hindutva vote bank just before the 2023 Assembly elections, the government also sought to scrap the 4% reservation given to Muslims under the 2-B category and redistribute it between these two communities. The two dominant communities were divided on accepting the proposal. At the same time, in response to a petition in the Supreme Court, the then BJP government filed an affidavit that it will not implement the order on the new reservation categories.

Months after the Congress government came to power in 2023, the Panchamasalis resumed the agitation. This became violent in Belagavi and resulted in lathi charge. Considering the sensitivity of the issue, the government has been cautious in its reply on the demand, and even allowed its own minister and legislators to be part of the protest.

In his carefully worded reply in the Karnataka Legislative Council, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah pointed out that he was not against the demand. “Let me make it clear. I will not use the word demand, but the ‘insistence’ is against the Constitution,” he said, and went into the details of the legal wrangle.

There are three major legal hurdles for the Panchamasali demand. The first one is a PIL writ petition filed by Raghavendra D.G. against the State of Karnataka and Others. The then Secretary of Backward Classes filed an affidavit in this petition before the Karnataka High Court, stating that the government would not alter the existing composition of the 2-A category either by addition or by deletion of any caste.

The second hurdle is the compliance/undertaking affidavit filed by the Karnataka government in the Supreme Court in March 2023 that any changes in the 2-A category or any addition or deletion will not be implemented without further approval of the Court.

The third is the interim report of the Backward Classes Commission of Karnataka, which recommended against any change in the composition of 2-A and abolition of 2-B.

These aside, the 102 communities that are currently in the 2-A category are opposed to the idea of a bigger and stronger community joining the group and shrinking their share.

The next ideal course of action for the Lingayat-Panchamasali community is to approach the Permanent Backward Classes Commission with their demand for inclusion in the 2-A category. The Chief Minister has been saying that any such demand on reservation should be routed through the Commission, which is mandated under a provision of Article 340 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Panchamasali community leaders, including the seer, have chalked out protest plans to exert pressure. The Opposition BJP has raised a ruckus in the House on the lathi charge. Although the BJP has been caught on the wrong foot on the issue, particularly because of the affidavits, it does not want to lose the chance of putting the government on the mat.