Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 9: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Monday unanimously passed a resolution to conduct a nationwide caste census in all Congress-ruled states, and at the Centre, if voted to power in 2024.
“We have unanimously decided that for India’s future a caste census is quintessential, and we (CWC) have decided to do it and we promise that it will be done. But we will not stop at that, we will also conduct an economic survey in the country. What we have not done before, we will ensure it is done this time and to ensure justice to all, caste census becomes a necessity,” CWC member and former president Rahul Gandhi told the media after the meeting.
The CWC alleged that India was the only G20 nation which is yet to conduct such a census, declaring it a “matter of shame.” It also accused the BJP of “cheating” the country’s deprived sections by not releasing the data of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census and not carrying out a fresh census.
“It (the government) has also failed in its Constitutional duty by inordinately postponing the decadal Census that ought to have been conducted in 2021 or soon thereafter,” read a resolution of the Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body.
Sources said the initiative was of Rahul Gandhi, who in an address later, said the INDIA bloc would “put pressure on the BJP to conduct this.” The Prime Minister, Mr Gandhi said, was “shying away” but the conduction of a caste census does not depend on him.
“This is not a political decision. This is a decision for providing justice to the downtrodden… Litmus tests work in chemistry, not in politics. We are promising caste census because we sincerely believe in it,” he added. “I am one hundred per cent with the caste census and we must get it done,” added Sonia Gandhi, who headed the party till last year.
Her successor, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, said the party has consistently raised its demand for a nationwide caste-based census. The demand has gained widespread public support especially after the Bihar Government’s release of caste survey.
“For proper implementation and delivery of government programmes and welfare schemes, it is important that we have scientific socio-economic data of the marginalised sections including their numbers, representation, and economic and social condition. Thus, it becomes important that we must deliberate upon the issue of Caste-based Census,” he said.
The Congress decision came as the Election Commission announced the dates for election in five states. Three of them – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – lie in the heartland where caste-based politics dominates. The Congress, which cautiously held back the 2011 caste report, has been vocal over a census over the last months, declaring it is the way forward to a proper and equitable social welfare schemes.
In April, Mr Kharge had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking implementation of a caste census. Having proper caste-wise data would help governments implement welfare and social security schemes better, he had said.
In the media conference, Rahul Gandhi said, the “Congress party had decided to not just support the idea of caste census but force the BJP to carry out of the census or make them get out of the way so that we can carry it out. Most of the parties in the India alliance are unanimous that the caste census should be implemented. There might be a few who have a slightly different position and that is fine we are quite flexible, but I am confident that the vast majority of the India alliance will support the caste census.”
Launching a scathing attack on Modi, the Congress leader claimed that the former was not capable of conducting the caste census.
“The PM is incapable of doing the caste census. We have four CM’s and out of that three are OBC leaders. BJP has 10 CMs and among them 1 is an OBC minister. We have to ask PM Modi what has he done for the OBC community? Modi never spoke a word on this, and this is so because it is acceptable for them. PM’s only work is to distract the OBC community and divert their attention”, he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had chaired the CWC meeting and urged party leaders to work in coordination, discipline and unity to ensure the party’s victory in the elections while affirming that if the Congress came to power in 2024, it would immediately implement the women reservation bill.
Taking to his official account in ‘X’, Kharge said social justice, public welfare and progressive development were the party’s guarantees in the upcoming polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram to be held in November.
Echoing similar sentiments to that of Gandhi, Kharge also raised the demand for conducting a nationwide caste census to ensure social justice and rights to the SCs, STs and OBCs in accordance with their population. The chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, besides the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders in the five poll-bound states, attended the CWC meeting.