The Congress on Monday questioned why the Census notification was silent on the inclusion of caste and whether this was “another U-turn” by the government.
The Union Home Ministry’s gazette notification Monday declared that the Census would be carried out in 2027. On April 30, the government had announced that the population census would include a caste census. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had then described it as a “historic decision” by a government “committed to social justice”.
Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said the gazette notification was silent on the inclusion of caste in the 16th Census. “Is this yet another U-turn by the ustad of U-turns? Or will details be announced later?” asked Ramesh.
He described the notification as a “damp squib” and said it “merely repeats what had already been announced on April 30”.
“It is entirely because of the persistence and insistence of the Indian National Congress that the PM surrendered to the demand for a caste census. He had called Congress leaders urban Naxals for making this demand. Both in Parliament and in the Supreme Court, the Modi Govt had rejected the very idea of a caste census — which it announced 47 days back,” said Ramesh.
He said the government should adopt the Telangana model for not just caste enumeration but also to bring out data on caste-wise socio-economic parameters.
The BJP, in response, accused the Congress of having cheated India’s OBC and EWS communities throughout its stint in power.
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Union Minister Bhupender Yadav asked who would pay the Karnataka state exchequer the `165 crore spent on conducting a caste survey in the state, which would now be conducted again. He alleged that the Congress, under the garb of social justice, merely aimed at ensuring social engineering and “appeasement politics”.
“It was only after the Modi government came that issues related to reservation in universities and schools were sorted but people from these communities also came out of poverty… Karnataka is the latest example of this — the Congress was never with the OBC, the EWS,” Yadav told reporters on Monday.
“Who is responsible for the costly exercise in Karnataka? The re-survey is political cover for appeasement, to instigate certain communities,” he alleged.
Yadav questioned whether an “extra-Constitutional body like the NAC (National Advisory Council) was at play” in Karnataka as well.
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Congress’s Ramesh responded by saying in another statement that “history should be kept aside”.
“The BJP withdrew its support to the VP Singh government on the Mandal Commission in August 1991, and they started the Kamandal agitation to counter the Mandal agitation. Let’s not get into this history. I can also go into the history of how the RSS opposed the Constitution of India beginning in November 1949; how Yogi Adityanath has opposed reservations; and how RSS leaders, including Mohan Bhagwat, have opposed reservations. So let’s keep history aside,” he said.