Minister Kharge challenged the BJP to clarify its stance on past instances where it allegedly misused funds from the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP) while in power.
Published Mar 04, 2025 | 10:16 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 04, 2025 | 10:43 PM
Priyank Kharge (X)
Synopsis: Ahead of the BJP’s planned protest in Bengaluru over the alleged misuse of SC/ST welfare funds, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge dismissed the accusations as hypocritical, highlighting instances where the BJP itself had diverted such funds during its tenure. He also pointed to fund misallocations under the Union government, challenging the BJP to clarify its stance on past diversions while defending the Congress-led government’s allocations.
A day before the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to protest against the Congress government over the alleged misuse of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) funds, Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology Priyank Kharge accused the party of hypocrisy, citing multiple instances of fund diversion under its own previous government.
Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on 4 March, Kharge challenged the BJP to clarify its stance on past instances where it allegedly misused funds from the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP) while in power.
The BJP’s protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on 5 March will be led by state president BY Vijayendra, opposition leader R Ashok, and Vidhana Parishad opposition leader Chalavadhi Narayanswamy, along with party legislators and former ministers.
Their demands include an immediate halt to the alleged diversion of SC/ST welfare funds and the restoration of exclusive spending for the socio-economic upliftment of Dalits and Adivasis.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is set to present the Karnataka budget on 7 March. The government is also expected to release caste-wise data on SC/ST beneficiaries of its welfare schemes by the end of March to justify its allocations.
The BJP has accused the Congress-led Karnataka government of misusing funds allocated under the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP) Act, 2013, by diverting them to finance its flagship welfare schemes instead of using them exclusively for SC/ST development programmes.
Party leaders claim that a significant portion of SC/ST funds has been allocated to the government’s five key welfare guarantees – Gruha Lakshmi (₹2,000 per month for women heads of families), Gruha Jyothi (200 units of free electricity), Anna Bhagya (free food grains), Yuva Nidhi (unemployment allowance), and Shakti (free bus travel for women). Since these schemes benefit all castes, the BJP argues that SCSP-TSP funds should not be used to support them.
According to expenditure data for 2024-25, as reported by the Deccan Herald, the Karnataka government has utilised ₹14,730.53 crore from the SCSP-TSP corpus for its guarantee schemes, accounting for 28 percent of the overall ₹52,000 crore allocated for these programmes.
Terming the BJP’s accusations as “misinformation and hypocrisy”, Priyank Kharge listed several instances of what he described as the party’s “systematic diversion” of SC/ST welfare funds for unrelated expenditures.
In Karnataka, he pointed out that ₹7,888 crore allocated for SC/ST welfare between 2018 and 2021, when the BJP was in power, was diverted to infrastructure projects, violating the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP) Act of 2013. The BJP government justified the expenditure under the “deemed expenditure” provision, which Kharge called a misuse of the legislation.
Kharge also highlighted similar instances in other BJP-ruled states, citing official data:
“Funds for Dalits were used to make a film on Vadnagar, Gujarat. They spent ₹5 crore on this and claimed that making a film on the prime minister would uplift SC/ST communities,” Kharge said.
Kharge accused the BJP of spreading “misinformation” by opposing the Congress government’s use of SCSP-TSP funds, particularly when the party itself had admitted to past fund diversions.
Citing news reports, he pointed out that in 2021, former BJP social welfare minister B Sriramulu initially defended a ₹5,170 crore fund diversion before later retracting his statement. He also noted that BJP SC/ST legislators P Rajeev, NY Gopalakrishna, and MP Kumaraswamy had protested against such diversions under their own government.
“Your own ex-ministers, B Sriramulu and Kota Srinivas Poojary, have gone on record confirming the diversion of funds when your government was in power. What is your clear stance now?” Kharge asked.
He further presented data showing that SC/ST budget allocations were lower in BJP-led states compared to Karnataka under Congress:
In contrast, Karnataka allocated 24.1 percent of its total budget for SC/ST welfare.
Priyank Kharge accused the BJP-led Narendra Modi government of systematically undermining the SC/ST welfare framework by dismantling the Planning Commission and replacing it with NITI Aayog, which does not have legally binding guidelines for SC/ST fund allocations.
He also challenged BJP leaders in Karnataka to justify why the Union government had spent funds allocated for SC/ST welfare for 2024-25 on unrelated expenditures, citing specific instances:
In contrast, only ₹25 crore was allocated for the National Tribal Welfare Programme.
“According to your own [BJP] logic, how can they dip into SC/ST funds to finance welfare schemes that are applicable to everyone and not just those communities?” Kharge asked.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
