Modi govt conceded to Cong's unyielding demand on caste census, says CWC

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) The Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution on Friday, hailing the grand old party’s aggressive and persistent push for the caste census and said that the repeated ‘jitni abaadi, utna haq’ pitch by Rahul Gandhi ‘forced’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to announce caste count on the national level. 

"After 11 years of continued opposition and stubborn refusal, Modi government has finally conceded the Congress’ demand to collect population data caste wise, as part of the next census,” the CWC resolution read.

It also stated that the Prime Minister has been attacking the Congress leadership for a decade for raising this demand and highlighted multiple instances when the party brass escalated the issue with the government and also turned it into a rallying point.

Notably, after the Centre announced including caste enumeration with the upcoming national census, there has been a credit-seeking war between the opposition parties while the government does firefighting in dispelling the notion that it’s not a climbdown on its part.

The CWC resolution mentions past incidents of Congress President Mallikarujun Kharge writing to PM Modi on several occasions and Rahul Gandhi raising the need and urgency of caste census at almost every public forum.

“Rahul Gandhi has been the strongest and most consistent voice demanding a nationwide caste census. At the 2022 Nav Sankalp Shivir in Udaipur, he raised the urgent need to gather data on caste so that government policies could truly reflect the lived realities of the marginalised,” the CWC statement read.

It further says that this demand was reiterated at the Congress plenary in Raipur in 2023, and was a central feature of both 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha manifestos of the Congress party.

“In Parliament, in speeches across the country, and during the two Bharat Jodo Yatras, and most recently at a press conference yesterday, Rahul Gandhi has asserted that caste census was essential for deepening social justice. He had stated that policies of reservation, welfare, and inclusion cannot be based on outdated assumptions or arbitrary caps but must be grounded in facts,” it further said.

CWC, the Congress' highest-decision making body, also urged the government to treat Telangana caste survey as a 'benchmark' for conducting of the caste count on the national level.

“CWC believes that the model followed by Telangana provides an effective and inclusive framework that the Government of India must emulate,” it said.

--IANS

mr/pgh