Bengaluru, 23 Sept 

The opposition BJP on Tuesday alleged that the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, which is conducting the Social and Education Survey, is not functioning independently and that it is being "remote controlled".

A delegation of BJP leaders led by the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, Chalavadi Narayanswamy, submitted a memorandum to the Backward Classes Commission Chairman Madhusudan R Naik, demanding that 14 SC/ST castes having dual identity nomenclature like -- Madiga Christian, Banjara Christian, Valmiki Christian -- should also be hidden or “masked” in the 'App' used for the survey.

They questioned why the commission did not mask these 14 SC/ST castes, when it decided to mask 33 other castes with similar dual identities having a word Christian suffixed to them.

The commission has, however, clarified that the 14 castes referred to by the BJP delegation are no longer part of its caste list, as they have already been removed.

Speaking after the meeting, Narayanswamy said that neither the Sadashiva Commission, which examined methods for the equitable distribution of reservation facilities among SCs, nor the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission, which surveyed 101 SCs to provide internal reservation, had castes with dual identity nomenclature that included the word 'Christian' as a suffix. 

"Where did they come from all of a sudden?"

Narayanaswamy slammed the idea of people retaining their caste after conversion, "How will it remain as it is? It is not possible. Once converted to Christianity, the person is Christian, he/she cannot be a Dalit Christian, just because his/her original caste was Dalit."