It said it doesn’t want to introduce schemes without knowing end beneficiaries; BJP calls it a waste of resources.
The Indian National Congress (INC) said publishing the caste census will be a priority for the party if it comes to power in the upcoming elections. The party said it couldn’t do it earlier as it lost the general elections in 2014.
Anand Prasad, Spokesperson, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) said the data was ready and was compiled when INC was in power from 2009 to 2014.“It needs to get published because we do not want to introduce schemes without knowing who benefits from of them.”.
D K Shivakumar in an interview with The News Minute said, “Publishing the caste census will be the first task of the Congress party, if it gets elected.”
Anand Prasad said that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) was just introducing schemes without knowing the targeted beneficiaries and it was why the party wasn’t able to implement most of its schemes properly.
On the other hand BJP spokesperson, MG Mahesh said that the BJP was not in favour of the caste census. He said, “It is a total wastage of finances. Congress constituted a contract commission to conduct caste census. They spent Rs. 180 crore on collecting data. But, at the time of publishing, due to internal party dissension they did not release the data.” He also said his party believed in democracy and equal representation of people and therefore, the party was not in favour of caste census.
He further added that the Congress did not deliver on any promises made to Dalits, Lingayats and Vokkaligas.
Congress spokesperson said, “BJP is in general hypocritical. They are blaming us for being hypocritical, but they have themselves not submitted the affidavit in the Supreme Court on scrapping the four percent Muslim quota. Besides, they also breached the limit of 50 percent reservation set by the SC.”
Dr. Harish Ramasamy, Professor of Political Science said that many sociologists failed to recognize many castes especially tribes. He said, “We need caste census to gather information on castes and sub castes that exist in India. It is important to have a caste census because only then the government can know who needs help.”
Caste census was first time conducted in 1931. It was meant to record every person’s caste name to allow the government to evaluate which castes were economically well off and which castes were worse off. Caste census comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Article 340 of the Indian constitution mandates the appointment of National Commission for Backward Classes to assess the results of policies made for backward classes.
Prathap, spokesperson of Janata Dal (Secular) said that the party was completely in line with Congress over caste census. “We are also in favour of publishing the caste census. The major votes for our party come from backward classes. It is important to give them recognition.”
Mahesh Pandya, a political analyst said that in backward communities benefits were reaped by the creamy layer. “Poor people are left out from getting benefits of various schemes and also benefits of reservation. Political parties are pushing for a caste census to check this practice,” he added. He reiterated the importance of caste census.
He said however, the BJP was opposing the move because it did not want to portray itself as a party that trying to divide the country on the basis of caste. “It is important to have a caste census to know who are really oppressed,” he concluded
