The conviction of 101 people, mostly from dominant castes, last week in the backward region of Koppal in Karnataka in a caste-linked crime has come at a time when the Congress government in the state is making a push for strong penal action in caste-linked hate crimes. The Siddaramaiah government is addressing caste discrimination at large with the aim of stopping its traditional Dalit vote base from drifting to the BJP.

The district court in Koppal sentenced the men to life imprisonment on October 24 for an attack on a village inhabited by members of a Scheduled Caste (SC) community in August 2014 over a local dispute. The sentence, in a region where the majority of the population is from Dalit communities, is one of the most stringent seen in Karnataka since the SC/ST Atrocities Act came into existence.

Days after the verdict, on October 28, the state Cabinet cleared the setting up of 33 special police stations under the aegis of the state’s Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement for Rs 34.7 crore to exclusively register caste-linked hate crime cases.

“The conviction rate in cases of SC/ST (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) atrocities in Karnataka is less than 3%, we have found after a study. We have found that cases of atrocities against SC communities and cases of fake caste certificates are not registered and investigated. It has been found that dedicated police stations are required to investigate cases if there has to be a higher rate of convictions in these cases,” said Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa.

The minister who belongs to a Dalit community and is a close associate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hailed the move as “historic” and the result of consultations between his ministry and the home ministry headed by G Parameshwara who is also a Dalit.

The return of support from the Congress’s traditional vote base of Dalits is considered a key reason for the party’s resounding win in the Karnataka Assembly polls last year in which it won 135 seats, including 21 of the 36 seats reserved for SCs.

The return of Dalit support — despite anger among a section of the weakest Dalits who believe the Congress takes their support for granted and ignores their social and economic conditions — helped the Congress turn the tables on the BJP that has made significant popular inroads into the SC community in the last 15 years.

In the 2008 Assembly polls, when the BJP emerged as the single-largest party and formed its first government in south India, it captured 22 of the 36 SC-reserved seats and the Congress won only eight. In 2013, when the Congress got a clear majority of 121 seats, it won 17 of the SC seats while the Janata Dal (Secular) won nine, and the BJP six. In 2018, when the BJP emerged as the single-largest party again, it got 16 of the SC seats while the Congress got 10 and the JD(S) six. In 2023, the Congress won 21 SC seats, the BJP 12, and the JD(S) three.

After the 2023 victory, the Congress chose Siddaramaiah who is from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) but is seen to have an open mind on Dalit issues. As CM, he has paid special attention to addressing Dalit issues to prevent the community from drifting away from the party once again.

In July 2023, the Congress government introduced a law removing a time bar on persons from Dalit communities to stake a claim to land granted to them but acquired by third parties without the active awareness of the land grantee. The Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands (Amendment) Act of 2023 received the Governor’s assent on July 27, 2023. The Congress had promised amendment of the law in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

In September 2023, Siddaramaiah addressed the issue of poor outcomes in cases of atrocities against Dalits in the state. At a high-level committee meeting to review the implementation of laws to prevent atrocities against SCs and STs, the CM observed that the rate of conviction in such cases was a mere 3.44% and in thousands of cases, chargesheets had not been filed even after over two months of the cases being filed.

“Police officers should consider the matter seriously. Strict instructions should be given to SPs and DCPs to file a charge sheet within two months. Police should investigate carefully. All efforts should be made to obtain convictions. It is very disgraceful that the rate of convictions in the state is just 3.44%,” Siddaramaiah said at the meeting.

He also called for regular biannual review meetings on atrocities as mandated by the law. “Out of the 10,893 cases registered in the last five years, 1,100 cases have not been charged within 120 days. This shows the indifference of the officers towards Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This will not give justice to the victims. This will not be tolerated,” he said.

At the meeting, Siddaramaiah also asked all MLAs and district in-charge ministers to review the progress of atrocity cases at taluk-level meetings and district commissioners must also conduct a meeting and review the district progress.

When the BJP was in power in Karnataka between 2019 and 2023, the Karnataka High Court had pulled up the Basavaraj Bommai-led government for poor implementation of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. In 2020, the Centre for Monitoring and Strengthening SC/STs in Karnataka (CMASK) filed a PIL in the court on the poor implementation of the law.

Soon after the CMASK filed the PIL, the High Court noted that out of 35,091 cases registered under the SC/ST Act between 2015 and 2019, chargesheets were filed in only 6,451 cases.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau report for 2021, Karnataka, with 1,642 cases, was ninth among states in terms of cases registered under the SC/ST Act. Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of cases at 9,492 followed by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar.