New Delhi: Claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a “desperate U-turn” on the caste census, the Congress on Sunday asked whether he will have the honesty to acknowledge that his
government has officially changed its policy on the subject and commit to a timeline for such a survey.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said evidence abounds on Prime Minister Modi’s “sudden, complete, and desperate U-turn” on the caste census.
Citing examples, Ramesh said that in a TV interview on April 28, 2024, Modi branded all those demanding a caste census as “urban naxals.”
“On July 20, 2021, the Modi government told Parliament that it had ‘decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the Census,” the Congress leader said on X.
In its affidavit to the Supreme Court dated September 21, 2021, the Modi government clearly stated that “the exclusion of information regarding any other caste (outside of SCs and STs) from the purview of census (2021) is a conscious
policy decision taken by the Central government as explained in the preceding paragraphs”, he said.
“In fact, the Modi government explicitly urged the Supreme Court not to order a caste census for the OBCs - In such a situation, any direction from this Hon’ble Court to Census Department to
include the enumeration of Socio-Economic data to the extent relating to BCCs of Rural India in the upcoming Census, 2021, as prayed, would tantamount to interfering with a policy decision as framed under Section 8 of the Act’,” Ramesh said.
Meanwhile, in a bid to ramp up pressure on the government over the caste census issue and amplify its social justice agenda, the Congress
has asked its state units to highlight the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP)’s opposition to the caste survey in the past and Rahul Gandhi’s sustained efforts for it.