New Delhi: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while announcing the caste census along with the impending national Census on Wednesday, hit out at the successive Congress governments for refusing to undertake any such exercise since Independence.
Addressing a press conference, the Union Minister said that Congress as well as the INDIA bloc have always opposed the idea of caste census and used it as a mere ‘political tool’ to spread misinformation.
He also slammed the ‘unscientific and impractical’ ways of conducting surveys, in the name of caste census, by some state governments and said that such surveys only created confusion and doubt in society.
“The subject of the Census is the Central subject. However, many states have conducted caste census through surveys. While some states have done this work in a systematic manner, some other states have conducted the survey in a politically motivated and non-transparent manner,” he pointed out.
The Union Minister further said that the decision was taken to do the counting of castes, under the original census, to ensure that the social fabric does not come under political pressure.
“This will ensure that the society will be economically and socially strong and the country will also continue to progress uninterrupted,” he said while reiterating that the present government remains committed to the overall interests and values of the country and society.
He also cited an instance of the Manmohan Singh government and claimed that despite consensus, the then Congress regime refused to budge on the issue.
“In 2010, the then Prime Minister, late Dr Manmohan Singh, had assured in the Lok Sabha that the caste census would be considered in the Cabinet. Subsequently, a Cabinet Group was also formed, in which most of the political parties recommended a caste-based census. Despite this, the Congress govt decided to put it off,” he said.
Notably, the Centre’s decision to club the Caste census with the national census comes on the back of several Congress-led governments undertaking such an exercise.
Bihar was the first state to conduct a caste-based census in 2022, where it enumerated the population of each caste in the state. Congress-led states, including Karnataka and Telangana, followed suit and undertook the caste census.
(IANS)
