Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah vows to get caste-wise census report commissioned during his first stint
Bengaluru, Jul 2: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday vowed to get the caste-wise census report which he had commissioned during his first stint as CM from 2013-18.
He said the caste-based census was a must to bring those communities in the mainstream of the society who were subjected to injustice due to casteism.
Siddaramaiah alleged that the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy during whose tenure (May 2018-July 2019) the caste-based census report was ready, scuttled its tabling by threatening the then Backward Classes Welfare Minister C Puttaranga Shetty.
Speaking after performing the ground-breaking ceremony of Sri Kaginele Mahasansthan Kanaka Gurupeeth, here today, Siddaramaiah said the Kuruba (shepherds) community, which he belonged to, constitute about seven per cent of the total population of the state.
"We are seven per cent in the total population (in the state), which means that out of seven crore population, we are 49 lakh. That's why to find out the caste-wise population I had assigned the then chairperson of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission H Kantharaj," Siddaramaiah said.
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According to the Chief Minister, the main purpose behind commissioning the caste-wise census was to find out where people stand socially and economically.
He added that the caste-wise census did not happen even after the independence of the country.
Siddaramaiah said during his previous stint, he had even allocated Rs 162 crore for caste-wise census.
He dismissed the allegation that it was ready during his previous tenure.
"If it was ready, I would have received it definitely. I wouldn't have bothered about anything," Siddaramaiah said.
He could not receive the report because it was not signed by the member secretary of the commission. By the time he could receive the report, Congress lost power in the state in 2018.
"In the coalition government led by Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, Puttaranga Shetty became the Backward Classes Minister. The report was ready by then.
"I told Puttaranga Shetty to get the backward classes commission report. So, he fixed a date to receive the report. Kumaraswamy directed Shetty not to receive the report. The then Minister Bandeppa (Kashempur) threatened him. So Shetty did not receive it. The report is still lying as it is," the Chief Minister claimed.
Siddaramaiah vowed to get the report saying that it will help giving preferential treatment to those communities which remained backward socially, economically and politically.
However, according to him, there is a glitch because the member secretary did not sign the document. In this regard, he said he would speak to the current chairperson of the commission K Jayaprakash Hegde.
"We will certainly receive it. It has to be signed first. There is some technical problem. We will take it definitely because we have to give preferential treatment accordingly," Siddaramaiah said.
He said, "It is necessary for tabling the budget to know the population of each caste and also their socio-economic and political status. Then only we can give them preferential treatment. Otherwise, it cannot be given. For this reason we have to receive the report."
Stating that he had commissioned the caste-wise census during his first stint as Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah said he now got another opportunity to head the state and will get the report tabled.
The Chief Minister also promised to implement the five guarantees announced during the election irrespective of the difficulties his government may face.
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Op Sindoor demonstrated India's progression towards 'domain jointness,' says Army Chief
Bengaluru (PTI): Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Thursday said Operation Sindoor demonstrated India's progression towards "domain jointness" and called the military offensive carried out inside Pakistani territory a "defining case study" of operational significance of integration.
In May last year, India had launched a military response targeting terror launchpads in Pakistan post the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 Indian tourists.
"Operation Sindoor was India's most powerful tool of progression towards domain jointness. But we need to achieve domain integration and fusion," General Dwivedi said.
He was addressing the "Ran Samvad" forum on "Land Forces visualisation of Multi Domain Operation (MDO)," here.
The army chief also highlighted the creation of an information warfare organisation and a psychological defence division following Operation Sindoor.
He said, "15 per cent of our effort was on managing the disinformation campaign."
He cautioned, however, that key challenges remain, particularly in synchronising operations across strategic, operational and tactical levels and addressing the growing prevalence of hybrid or grey-zone warfare.
"These are typically below the conventional military threshold, with the goal to exploit adversary vulnerability," he said, adding that non-kinetic operations are increasingly taking precedence.
"Operation Sindoor was India's most powerful tool of progression towards domain jointness. But we need to achieve domain integration and fusion," he said.
The Chief of Army Staff said his visualisation of MDO is not of six domains operating in parallel but all of them "in constant dynamic interaction where the weight shifts and the lead changes".
The Army chief stressed that modern warfare is no longer confined to geographical boundaries or single-service dominance, but is instead defined by continuous interaction across domains, stakeholders and levels of conflict.
"We are living through a dispersed, undeclared, multi-theatre, multi-domain war of our times. The question is not whether domains interact, it is how the interface is orchestrated across the battle space," he said.
General Dwivedi drew a distinction between land domain and land forces, explaining that while the former refers to the operational space, the latter represents the actors, comprising all six domains—land, air, maritime, cyber, space and cognitive—operating in a shared environment.
He underlined that these domains are no longer siloed but function through dynamic synergy.
Elaborating on the evolving battlefield, General Dwivedi noted that MDO has transformed warfighting into a layered, three-dimensional construct.
"In MDO, the battlefield is no longer a line on a map. It's a 3D -- cyber effects shaping the cognitive space, space assets cueing targets, and electronic warfare contesting every frequency simultaneously," he said.
He emphasised that commanders must develop cross-domain situational awareness from the tactical to strategic level.
Highlighting the operational significance of integration, General Dwivedi referred to Operation Sindoor as a "defining case study".
"It was a ground intelligence network coupled with cyber and EW (electronic warfare) inputs that gave the joint army-air force targeting, while the navy's repositioning shaped the strategic calculus simultaneously. No single domain decided the operation," General Dwivedi added.
He described such mutually enabling actions as the essence of MDO.
The Army Chief observed that while domains like cyber, space and cognitive operations benefit from centralised control, land warfare continues to rely on decentralised execution, creating a complex and adaptive system that must be aligned through central intent and technological integration.
On capability development, he said the Indian Army is transitioning steadily from concept to execution under a structured transformation roadmap.
He pointed to dedicated MDO war-gaming exercises since 2024 and the joint doctrine issued in August 2025 as milestones that have provided a unified operational framework across the three services for the first time.
General Dwivedi detailed several structural reforms underway, including the operationalisation of integrated battle groups, Rudra brigades, drone units, electronic warfare formations and cyber operations nodes.
He further underscored the importance of the "three Is" —integration, informatisation and intelligentisation—driven by technology but anchored in human decision-making.
"The human must remain in the loop exercising the judgment," he asserted.
The Army Chief emphasised the need for leadership transformation in the digital age.
"Commanders must evolve into techno-commanders, to build a force that does not know where one domain ends and another begins," he said.
Outlining the future roadmap, he identified "six Ds" shaping the MDO environment—dispersion, democratisation and diffusion among them—leading to imperatives such as diversification of assets, delegation of command and distributed response.
He called for a shift from "domain silos to domain fusion", describing a six-stage progression from domain purity to complete integration.
