Patna: Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Monday claimed that the Narendra Modi government “bowed” before the “strong resolve” of the grand old party and the “power” of the depressed classes in ordering the enumeration of castes in the census.
Addressing a press conference at the Bihar Congress’ headquarters here, he blamed the central government’s “earlier reluctance to caste census” on the “DNA of the ruling BJP” at the Centre.
“For the Congress, social justice and caste census have always been two facets of the same coin. The issue, which Rahul Gandhi has been raising so forcefully, has been our priority since the days of the UPA government, which had ordered an enumeration of the castes way back in 2011”, Surjewala said.
But the Modi government dragged its feet when the report of the enumeration of castes came out in 2015, the Congress leader alleged.
“After initially announcing that further action will be recommended by an experts’ committee headed by the then Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, the government informed the Supreme Court in 2021 that it forgot to constitute the full committee and hence no action could be taken,” Surjewala claimed.
He also circulated copies of an article published 15 years ago in the Organiser, the mouthpiece of the BJP’s parent body RSS, to stress that the opposition to an enumeration of castes was “in the DNA” of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
“But, now, the government has bowed before the strong resolve of the Congress and the power of the depressed classes which are demanding a share that is proportionate to their population,” the Rajya Sabha MP claimed.
He, however, said the Congress is keeping a close watch on how the government proceeds in the matter.
“The government has made an announcement but has neither specified a date of commencement nor fixed a time frame for completion,” he added.
In a major decision, the central government have decided to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census exercise in a “transparent” manner.
