The political developments in the past nearly a decade suggests that the Grand Old Party of India – Congress has become synonymous with the controversies irrespective of its history and far reaching implication for the country. The Congress has again stirred the controversy as it appears to be engaging in a risky game of caste politics. Rahul Gandhi demanded the release of caste census results during an election rally in Kolar last time. In 2011-12, the UPA conducted a caste-based census. It contained information on all castes among OBCs. But the UPA government did not make it public and by 2014, the NDA government led by Narendra Modi came to power who did not see any merit in the Congress Party's political move of caste-based census.
Rahul has demanded the centre to let the nation know how many OBCs, Dalits, and Tribals there are in the country. He is also opposed to any reservation cap on the upper limits of reservation as fixed by the Supreme Court.
While the censuses in colonial India categorised and enumerated the various castes, the censuses in independent India only enumerated the population of castes and tribes according to the central government list. With the Supreme Court requiring fresh data on the other backward classes, how will the identification of the OBC from the 4,000 castes in the country be undertaken?
The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime in 2011-12. Clearly, this is not a one-time remark intended to impress certain segments of society in a constituency or state; party president Mallikarjun Kharge made the same demand on the same day. Kharge added that without an updated caste census, social justice and empowerment programmes would be ineffective. While the grand old party's stance on caste census is risky, its arguments for data release are deeply flawed.
For one thing, the Congress is a national, all-inclusive party that cannot afford to be concerned with the interests of just one segment of society. This is why the Congress was never enthusiastic about the Mandal Commission recommendations, social justice rhetoric, and so on. The governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi ignored the Mandal report for nearly a decade. Even when former Prime Minister VP Singh announced its implementation, Rajiv Gandhi was one of the few mainstream politicians to condemn the report. Unfortunately, his son appears to be ignoring his wise words; in order to appease his allies in Bihar, Rahul is simply echoing the views of Mandal and VP Singh's ideological and political stance.
The Congress' demand is flawed because it is based on the incorrect doctrine that welfare measures cannot be implemented without knowing the demographic castes. This has been refuted in recent years by the Modi government's various schemes launched and implemented. The government was able to implement them with remarkable success due to their heavy reliance on technology (and, of course, the political will to directly reach the beneficiary). This was reflected in a number of election results. The Congress would be wise not to go against the grain.
