Political war over caste census: BJP, Congress set to fight to take credit for nationwide exercise

While the Congress insisted that its Rahul Gandhi’s persistent advocacy for a national caste count that has forced the Modi government to take the decision, the BJP highlighted the former’s alleged reluctance while being in government to hold such an exercise.

New Delhi: The demand for breaching the 50 per cent quota cap to enable an increase in reservation benefits for OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis would now reach a crescendo with the country all set to witness caste census, the first in independent India, even as the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are set to fight a perception war for taking credit for the nationwide exercise.

While the Congress insisted that its leader Rahul Gandhi’s persistent advocacy for a national caste count that has forced the Narendra Modi government to take the decision, the BJP highlighted the former’s alleged reluctance while being in government to hold such an exercise and the so-called flawed surveys done by its state governments recently that "has created doubts" in the society.

For the BJP, which has faced an onslaught from the Opposition on the issue especially during the Lok Sabha campaign, it is also a change from Modi’s “four biggest castes for me are poor, youth, women and farmers” counter-attack on his opponents. Modi had even attacked the Congress for its caste census pitch as one emanating from “urban naxal thought”. It hopes to blunt the political weapon used by the Opposition to corner it in the past couple of years.

The surprise announcement came after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) chaired by Prime Minister Modi in the midst of tension between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror strike that claimed 26 lives, and the government facing questions over security and intelligence lapses.

While the government accuses the Congress and its I.N.D.I.A. partners of using caste census as a “political tool”, the ruling BJP hopes to reap electoral benefits from it in Bihar where Assembly election is scheduled later this year. The BJP also has the 2027 Uttar Pradesh polls in mind where OBCs and Dalits appeared to have shifted away from the saffron camp during the Lok Sabha polls.

However, there is no clarity on when the government intends to complete the caste count, now being clubbed with the decadal census that has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government has not spelt out the timeline for conducting the census, which was due in 2021, and there is fear that an addition of caste count could further delay the exercise.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw refused to take questions at a press conference where he publicised the decisions taken in meetings of the Union Cabinet and the CCPA, which was preceded by a meeting of the all-important Cabinet Committee on Security.

For the Congress, the plank will be the party’s consistent campaign for the past at least three years for a nationwide caste census and the emphasis on the caste surveys conducted in party-led state governments. It also believes that the action by Telangana government on its caste census also pushed the Modi government to take such a course.

It will further highlight BJP’s previous assertion that caste census could lead to divisions in the society.

The government and the BJP has set its narrative through Vaishnaw’s remarks during the press conference when he targeted Manmohan Singh government and the Congress. Incidentally, the decision also came a day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat met Modi.

Alleging that the Congress governments have always opposed caste census, Vaishnaw said that Singh had assured Lok Sabha that caste census would be considered in the Cabinet but it only decided to conduct a survey of castes instead of a caste census in 2011. He also questioned “non-transparent” caste surveys conducted by state governments led by Congress, creating “doubts”.