• Source:JND
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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging for a "clear timeline for every stage of census" and make use of the Telangana model for the caste survey. Caste census should not be seen as divisive in any way, Kharge mentioned in the letter to the prime minister on Monday. On April 30, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) had approved that caste enumeration would be part of the decennial census. However, no further details were provided in this regard.

"Conducting any exercise such as the caste census which gives the backward, the oppressed and the marginalized sections of our society their rights cannot and should not be considered divisive in any way," Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said.

“Our great nation and our big-hearted people have always stood united in adversity. We all showed solidarity after the recent cowardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam. The Indian National Congress believes that caste census in the comprehensive manner suggested above is essential to ensure social and economic justice and equality of status and opportunity. This is also resolved in the Preamble of our Constitution.”

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Urging for a clear timeline for census, Kharge said, “the government must immediately allocate the necessary funds and announce a clear timeline for every stage of the census.”

Kharge stated that Congress had been asking for a caste census for a long time. He said, “Unfortunately… your party leaders and you yourself have continuously attacked the Congress Party and the Congress leadership for raising this legitimate demand. Today you yourself are admitting that this demand is in the interest of deeper social justice and social empowerment.”

“Without any clear explanation, you have announced that caste will also be included as a separate category in the next census (which was scheduled for 2021)," Kharge said.

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“The design of the census questionnaire is extremely important. Caste information should be collected not just for the sake of counting but to achieve broader socio-economic goals. The recently conducted caste survey in Telangana was designed and implemented with these objectives in mind. The Union Home Ministry should use the Telangana model for the questionnaire used in the census and the questions asked. Nothing should be hidden in the report to be published at the end of the process so that the complete socio-economic data of each caste is publicly available so that their socio-economic progress can be measured from one census to the next and they can be given constitutional rights,” Mallikarjun Kharge said.

Talking about the reservation in Tamil Nadu, Kharge said, “Earlier in 1994, the Tamil Nadu Reservation Act was included in the Ninth Schedule of our Constitution. Similarly, the reservation acts passed by all the states should be included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. Apart from this, whatever the results of the caste census, it is clear that the arbitrary maximum limit of 50% on reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes will have to be removed through constitutional amendment.”

Kharge emphasised that new laws should be in place to implement Article 15(5) that give OBC reservation to both public and private educational institutions. “I trust that you will consider my suggestions. In fact, I urge you to have an early dialogue with all political parties on the issue of caste census,” he said.