As many as 587 false caste certificate cases are still pending in the state, of which 86 involve Lingayats identifying themselves as Beda Jangama, who are Scheduled Castes.
Of these 86 cases, 48 are registered in Ballari alone.
According to documents available with the DH, since 1988, 1,097 cases of false caste certificates have been booked.
People belonging to forward or upper castes obtain ‘false’ caste certificates to avail of benefits such as reservation in education and jobs. It is also misused by a section of politicians to contest polls. Caste certificates are issued by the revenue officials.
According to a senior bureaucrat, the number of applications seeking Budga Jangama caste certificates has gone up exponentially in the last one decade.
Two groups claim to be Beda Jangama: a group of wandering performers and the other a sect of preachers (Lingayats) in the state. Beda Jangama and Budga Jangama appear as number 19 in the list of 101 Scheduled Castes in the state.
The distinct feature of the two communities is that the Beda Jangama and Budga Jangama have their roots in the Andhra region and are primarily Telugu-speaking. The Veerashaiva Jangamas speak Kannada and are like the priestly class.
BJP MLA M P Kumaraswamy, who heads a legislature committee on SC/ST welfare, said he feels sad when a “priestly class from a powerful community” tries to usurp reservation meant for mendicants by misusing nomenclature.
“The very idea of reservation was envisaged by Dr B R Ambedkar to ensure equal opportunity for untouchables in the country. I’m not opposed to giving reservations to Lingayats or any other community in the state, but I will certainly oppose the upper caste trying to usurp the reservations meant for Dalits,” Kumaraswamy, a Dalit, said.
Last year, chief minister’s political secretary M P Renukacharya admitted on the floor of the Assembly that his daughter, a Lingayat, had obtained a certificate identifying her as a Beda Jangama (SC).