SENIOR Congress leader and former President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Nana Patole alleged that the motto of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government at the Centre regarding caste census is not clear. Talking to media persons at state Congress party office Rajiv Bhawan in the State capital today, Nana Patole said that the Congress party demands the Central Government to reject the current format of the caste census and cancellation of its questionnaire. Patole stated that a caste census should be conducted nationwide in a transparent manner, using a new questionnaire based on a verified list of castes (a dropdown list)- following the methodology adopted in Telangana and Bihar. He stated that the new questionnaire should be prepared only after extensive consultations with political parties, experts, and the public, so that the true numbers of every caste and community are revealed and the caste census proves to be accurate, meaningful, and useful for social justice.

 

In their view, question number 10 among the 40 questions notified for the upcoming census clearly indicates that the BJP Government at the Centre is shying away from a caste census. For this question, the Central Government has opted for an open-ended format, whereas a dropdown list was essential. When enumerators visit households, multiple names for the same caste, stemming from regional dialects, synonyms, and spelling variations, will be recorded. This would result in the registration of millions of caste names across the country. Significant discrepancies would arise in the data, rendering the information obtained through the entire process useless. The current format will fail to yield accurate figures regarding the OBC population, as the term ‘Backward Class’ is not even included in the questionnaire, he added. President of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) Deepak Baij, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Dr Charan Das Mahant, State Congress Media Chief Sushil Anand Shukla and other Congress leaders were present in the press conference.