Will PM 'honestly acknowledge' U-turn on caste census, commit to a timeline: Congress

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said evidence abounds on Prime Minister Modi's 'sudden, complete, and desperate U-turn' on the caste census.

New Delhi: Claiming that "evidence abounds" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "sudden, complete and desperate U-turn" on Caste Census, Congress on Sunday asked whether he will "honestly acknowledge" the change in stand and explain it in Parliament.

Posing three questions to the Prime Minister, Party General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh asked whether he will commit to a timeline for the Caste Census.

"Will he have the honesty to acknowledge that his Government has officially changed its policy on the caste census over the last eleven years? Will he explain to the people and the Parliament the reasons for the change in the Government’s policy?" he added.

He said, "evidence abounds on Mr. Modi's sudden, complete, and desperate U-turn on the caste census". Citing an interview on April 28 last year, Ramesh said Modi had branded all those demanding caste census as "urban naxals".

Ramesh also referred to a written reply in Parliament by the Ministry of Home Affairs which said that it was decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the Census.

He said the Modi government had also submitted an affidavit in Supreme Court on 21 September, 2021 in which it had said the exclusion of information regarding castes other than those of SCs and STs from the purview of 2021 Census was a "conscious policy decision".

In fact, Ramesh said, the Modi Government explicitly urged the Supreme Court not to order a caste census for the OBCs.

“In such a situation, any direction from this Hon'ble Court to Census Department to include the enumeration of Socio-Economic data to the extent relating to BCCs of Rural India in the upcoming Census, 2021, as prayed, would tantamount to interfering with a policy decision as framed under Section 8 of the Act," Ramesh quoted the affidavit.