'Openly betraying country's Bahujans': Rahul Gandhi accuses PM Modi on caste census negligence

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the Modi government was "openly betraying" the country's "Bahujans" by having "no concrete framework, no time-bound plan, no discussion in Parliament and no dialogue with the public" on the caste census.

His remarks came a day after the government responded to his question on census and caste enumeration in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

“In Parliament, I asked the government a question about the caste census - their response was shocking. No concrete framework, no time-bound plan, no discussion in Parliament, and no dialogue with the public,” Rahul posted on ‘X’.

“There is not even any desire to learn from the strategies of successful caste censuses in other states. This stance of the Modi government on caste census is an open betrayal of trust with the country's ‘Bahujans’,” he added.

Rahul had asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to spell out the details and tentative timelines of the key procedural steps to prepare for the decadal census, including the preparation of questions and setting schedules.

He also posed a question on the government having any proposal to publish the draft census questions and seek inputs from the general public or people's representatives on these queries.

Another question he asked was whether the government is taking into consideration the best practices from previous exercises, including the caste surveys conducted in various states, and if so, the details thereof.

Rahul and Congress have asked the government to consider the caste survey conducted by the party -led Telangana government as a benchmark for the Census 2027.

After providing the timeline for conducting the two-phased Census 2027, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the census questionnaire is finalised on the basis of inputs/suggestions from different ministries, departments, organisations and census data users etc. before each census.

"The draft Census questionnaires are pre-tested in the field to assess their feasibility before finalisation of the same. As per Rule 6 of Census Rules, 1990, the census questionnaires are notified by the central government through Official Gazette under sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Act," Rai said.

Rai also said the census has a history of more than 150 years and the learnings from the previous editions are taken into consideration for conducting the next exercise. Before each census, inputs are also taken from the stakeholders concerned, he said responding to questions on taking into account the experience of states that conducted caste surveys.