Congress steers in reverse gear on caste lane
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 21: The Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was conducted under the watch of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by then then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh was the man on the job.
The UPA government had decided to use the data picked up from the exercise of the SECC-2011 for targeting the welfare scheme. The caste data was found to be full of errors, and thus kept under the wraps. The Congress-led UPA had decided to withhold the caste data as a well-thought decision within the government that the exercise full of errors would cause unknown consequences.
But Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge on Tuesday, during a rally in Madhya Pradesh, committed to holding caste census in the state if his party was elected to form the government in the Hindi heartland. The promise to hold the caste census is in addition to the guarantees of the Congress which includes the likes of Rs 1500 to women, LPG cylinders for Rs 500 each, unemployment allowances, free electricity for 100 units and half cost for first 200 units, and waiver of farm loans.
Incidentally, the Congress ally, the Janata Dal (United), is spearheading the caste census bus in the politics. While the Patna High Court had earlier stayed the caste census, the exercise now has got the go ahead. Yet, several Hindi newspapers in their independent surveys had revealed erroneous exercise in conducting the caste census in Bihar. The list of castes is too long, and the field officials have been found to be struggling to fill the forms. The people, quoted by the surveys, have openly been skeptical of the caste survey in Bihar, accusing the Nitish Kumar government of seeking political mileage from the exercise, while also being dismissive of the gains from the data.
It may be recalled that the DMK-hosted conclave of the Opposition parties in Chennai to which the Congress was also a party had decided to ride the social justice plank for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress now slowly is throwing its weight behind the caste census demand, which has been resisted by the Centre so far. It may also be recalled that the Bihar chief minister, while he was part of the NDA, had led a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for caste census in the country.
It may also be noted that the Census 2021 has still not been held in the country. The data for the policy intervention still belong to the Census 2011.
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