Source : INDIATV NEWS
The government has announced that caste enumeration would be included in the forthcoming census exercise in a transparent manner.
Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday welcomed the Union Cabinet’s decision to conduct a caste census, but demanded a clear timeline for its completion, calling it just the ‘first step’ toward deeper social reform. He also offered Congress’ support in helping the government design and implement the census.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have been demanding a nationwide caste census, making it a major election issue. Some states like Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka have conducted such surveys.
Addressing a press conference, the Congress leader said, “We had said in the Parliament that we will make the caste census happen. We had also said that we would scrap the 50 per cent cap, the artificial wall that is in place. Narendra Modi used to say that there are just four cases. Don’t know what happened, but suddenly, after 11 years, the caste census has been announced. We completely support it, but we want a timeline. We want to know by when it will be done.”
Telangana is a model for caste census: Rahul Gandhi
Welcoming the Narendra Modi dispensation’s “sudden” decision to include caste enumeration in the census exercise after “11 years of opposing it”, he said, “This is the first step and Telangana is a model for caste census and it can become a blueprint. We offer our support to the government in designing the Caste Census.”
While reiterating the demand for removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations, Gandhi said funds should be allocated for the caste census. “We want people’s census, not bureaucrats’ census,” he added.
“I would like to reiterate that the caste census is the first step. Our vision is to bring a new development paradigm through the caste census. Not just reservations, but we are also asking central questions – be it OBCs, Dalits, Adivasis, what is their participation in this country? Through the caste census it will be found, but we have to go ahead of the caste census…We had said one more thing, Congress had raised one more point, it was mentioned in the manifesto as well — Article 15(5) – reservation in private education institutions. This is already a law. We want the NDA-BJP Government to begin implementing it,” he added.
Modi govt to conduct caste census
In a major decision, the government on Wednesday announced that caste enumeration will be included in the next census exercise in a “transparent” manner and slammed the opposition parties for using caste survey as a “political tool”.
Announcing the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the purview of the Centre but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys.
Alleging that the states ruled by opposition parties have done caste surveys for political reasons, the minister said it is the Modi government’s resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the forthcoming pan-India census exercise. The census exercise was to commence in April 2020 but got delayed due to the Covid pandemic.
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