'Govt gave headline but where is deadline': Congress on Modi govt's caste census announcement

Asserting that the barrier of 50 per cent cap on reservations should be removed, Ramesh asked what is stopping the Modi government from doing this.

New Delhi: Questioning government's intention on conducting Caste Census, Congress on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing the exercise in the midst of the country mourning Pahalgam terror victims and their families waiting for justice, claiming he is "a master of giving a headline without a deadline".

General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh also took a jibe at both Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah asking whether they have become "urban naxals" with the announcement, as he referred to remarks by the Prime Minister during Lok Sabha campaign last year describing those advocating Caste Census as having "urban naxal thoughts".

Calling the Caste Census as the first step, he said the second and third step for the Congress would be fighting for the removal of the 50% quota cap and implementation of quota for OBC students in private educational institutions guaranteed by Article 15(5) of the Constitution while accusing the government of remaining "silent" on whether it would do these.

"With the announcement, a headline is given without a deadline. The Prime Minister is a master of giving headlines without deadlines. That is why (Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi has demanded a roadmap...The intention is just headline management," Ramesh told reporters.

"After 11 years of silence, the government has come up with a surprise announcement...When the country is mourning Pahalgam, you are announcing this in between...Caste Census is important but the biggest issue at this moment is Pahalgam. The country is waiting, families are waiting for justice. But the Prime Minister is into election speeches and headline manufacturing," he said.

Amid criticism that the Congress is a late comer to social justice politics, Ramesh recalled that it was country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who brought in the first amendment to the Constitution to protect quota regime after a court struck down an affirmative action in the then state of Madras.

Citing Modi's objections to the Caste Census earlier, he said the Prime Minister has taken "another U-turn" after he did the same on GST, Aadhaar, MNREGA and Food Security Act. He said Modi might have learnt the art of U-turns from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who faced criticism for his about-turns on alliances.

He referred to the 2011 Socio-Economic and caste census conducted under Manmohan Singh government while admitting that information about caste was not published in this survey, because many flaws were found in it.

"I was a minister myself and I worked hard with the state governments to find out how we could improve the shortcomings we found in each state. But later the elections came, the code of conduct came into force and we could not publish the information. I am happy that the information about the social and economic conditions obtained through this survey is being used by the Modi government even today," he said.

But the information collected on caste was being cleaned up in 2013 and this work was not completed before the 2014 elections, he said adding, the Modi government, however, suddenly stopped the exercise and said that we will not do Caste Census.