May 2, 2025
NEW DELHI – The Congress party on Thursday smelled a rat in the intention of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre to honestly carry out a time-bound caste-based census.
“Modiji used to say that those who talk about caste-based census are urban Naxals. So, has Modiji now become an urban Naxal?” Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh questioned while addressing a press conference.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on Wednesday approved a proposal to include caste enumeration in the next caste census, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw had announced.
Addressing a press briefing after the Cabinet meeting Mr Vaishnaw had said: “Under the leadership of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs has decided today that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming Census.”
Citing a December 2019 Union Cabinet meeting press release, stating that the Cabinet has approved the proposal for conducting the census of India in 2021 at the cost of Rs 8,254 crore, Mr Ramesh argued “but the department that carries out the census has been allocated only Rs 575 crore in the 2025-26 Budget.”
Stressing for a time-bound nationwide caste-based census, Mr Ramesh demanded that the government lift the Supreme Court’s “arbitrary ceiling” of 50 per cent on reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes.
He also demanded that the government bring legislation to implement Article 15(5) to provide reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes in private, unaided, non-minority educational institutions.
Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mastered the art of coining “headline without deadline,” Mr Ramesh recalled party leader Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a clear roadmap and timeline for the caste enumeration in the upcoming census.
Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had on Wednesday welcomed the government’s “sudden” decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming population census, stating that it comes after “11 years of opposing it.” He, however, demanded that the government present a budget and a clear timeline for its implementation.
Mr Ramesh said that the government should have gotten the census carried out in 2021. But, under the guise of the COVID pandemic, it was not done even though more than 50 countries carried out their census during the COVID. He further pointed out that, though the pandemic was not there in 2023 and 2024, the government still did not get the census done.