New Delhi: Hours after the Centre announced Wednesday that caste enumeration would be included in the next population census, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi—the most prominent political champion of the cause—asserted that the Congress had forced the BJP to accept its demand.
“We have shown that we can pressure the BJP into doing the caste census…this is our vision which they have adopted,” said Rahul, addressing a packed press conference at the old Congress headquarters on New Delhi’s Akbar Road.
The Congress MP was in Kanpur, meeting the family of a Pahalgam terror attack victim, when the Centre made the surprise announcement.
“We want to go beyond caste census. We want to put pressure on the government to make sure that the 50 percent cap on reservations is destroyed. And after that, there is a third thing, which is Article 15(5), which is about reservation in private educational institutions. It is already a law. We want that law to be implemented as soon as possible. So that is broadly the structure. We see the caste census as a new paradigm of development,” Rahul said.
Over the past few years, a nationwide caste census is one demand that has featured in nearly every public address—be it home or abroad, in Parliament or outside—made by Rahul. He first sought it ahead of the 2023 Karnataka assembly polls. It came to form the bedrock of his social justice pitch.
It is no wonder then that Rahul chose to address the hurriedly convened press conference shortly after returning to Delhi from Kanpur. Initially, the Congress had decided that its general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh and publicity department chairman Pawan Khera would hold a briefing on the issue.
Asked about the possible reason behind the Centre, which had so far been ambiguous on the demand for a caste census, shifting its stance on the subject, Rahul said he was not interested in speculation.
“I don’t know what suddenly happened after 11 years. Narendra Modi, who used to say there are only four castes, suddenly announced a caste census. We want a timeline from the Centre on when they plan to do it…we want dates,” Rahul said, referring to the prime minister’s past assertion that the poor, youth, women and farmers are the only four castes for him.
In 2021, during its previous term, the Modi government had effectively ruled out a caste census. In a written response to the Lok Sabha, it stated that it had decided, as a matter of policy, not to enumerate caste-wise data beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
An affidavit by the Ministry of Social Justice to the Supreme Court had said that “population census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste” as “the operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that basic integrity of census data may be compromised and the fundamental population could itself get distorted”.
“I will work on facts. I have no interest in why they took it. I just understand that it’s a big step. I want to know when it will be done and what kind of questions will be asked,” Rahul said Wednesday, dismissing a suggestion that the Bihar elections, due later this year, may have prompted the government’s hand.
Referring to the Congress-led Telangana government’s caste survey and subsequent measures including 42 percent reservation for Backward Classes in government jobs, educational institutions and urban and rural local body polls, Rahul said that can become a “blueprint” for the country.
“We offer to help the government design the census. There is a huge difference between the Bihar and Telangana designs (of caste survey). In Telangana, we designed the census after widespread consultations. We want a people’s census, not a bureaucratic census. The communities we are trying to help have no representation in the bureaucracy. We want a mass, open technology census where we ask the stakeholders about the design,” said the LoP.
The former Congress president said pressure could be built on the government because “we ran a campaign in an organised manner”.
“The campaign had an impact. But caste census only opens a door. The real work begins thereafter. We want to bring a completely new development paradigm using the caste census. It is not just about reservations but finding out the participation rate of SCs, STs, Adivasis and Backward Castes in the power structure and our institutions. We want the caste census to go in that direction,” he said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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