Congress chief Kharge writes to PM Modi, calls for dialogue with all parties on caste census

New Delhi: Stepping up pressure on the government, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that Caste Census does not stop at just counting castes but help in achieving larger socio-economic objectives.

Kharge also said “nothing in the report should be concealed” and complete socio-economic data of each caste is made available to provide them constitutionally enabled rights and ensure that their socio-economic progress can be measured from one census to another. He urged Modi to have a “dialogue with all political parties” soon on Caste Census.

In a letter to Modi on Monday in which he said the government announced caste enumeration with the Census “without (providing) any details”, he raised three demands – adopt Telangana model for designing questionnaire, remove 50 per cent reservation cap and put quota provided by states beyond 50 per cent in Ninth Schedule and implement reservation in private educational institutions.

Sharing the letter on X, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said, “following the Congress Working Committee meeting on May 2…Kharge-ji wrote to the PM last night (Monday) on Modi’s sudden and desperate U-turn on the caste census – even as the nation’s anguish and anger at the brutal Pahalgam terror attacks continued unabated.”

Kharge recalled his April 16, 2023 letter to Modi demanding Caste Census and said the Prime Minister and his party leaders attacked the Congress and its leadership for raising a “legitimate” demand, which the government acknowledges today, in the “interests of deeper social justice and empowerment”.

He said conducting exercises like Caste Census, which gives the backward, the oppressed and the marginalised sections their rights, “cannot and should not” be considered divisive in any way. “Our great nation and our large-hearted people have always come together as one whenever needed, just as we have done after their recent cowardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam,” he said.

Congress believes that conducting the Caste Census in a comprehensive manner is “absolutely necessary” to ensure social and economic justice and equality of status and opportunity as pledged in the Preamble of the Constitution, he said.

Emphasising that the design of the census questionnaire is crucial, he said caste information has to be collected not for counting purposes but for achieving larger social-economic objectives and highlighted Congress-led Telangana government's caste survey, which was done with “such goals in mind”, which Kharge wanted the government to adopt.

Referring to the 69 per cent quota in Tamil Nadu being protected from judicial review since August 1994, he asked the government to take steps to put laws of other states in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

He said whatever the results of the caste census will be, it is abundantly clear that the “arbitrarily imposed” 50 per cent quota cap for SCs, STs and OBCs must be removed by a Constitutional amendment.

Kharge demanded the implementation of Article (15(5) of the Constitution that provides for reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs in private educational institutions as well.