Centre's nod to caste census: Significance and implications

In a major decision that has caught the Opposition unawares, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the inclusion of caste enumeration in the next Census exercise.

Union information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who informed the media of the CCPA’s decision, on Wednesday (April 30), however, shared no details regarding the parameters that would be followed for caste enumeration or, for that matter, about when exactly the Census exercise, due since 2021, will actually commence.

Also read: Centre approves holding caste census as part of next population census

Backdrop of Pahalgam attack

Nonetheless, the Centre’s surprise decision, which comes at a time when political leaders across the spectrum and the country at large were singularly focussed on the government’s still unravelling response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, deals a major blow to the Opposition’s and particularly the Congress party’s continuing attacks against the Modi regime’s refusal for caste enumeration. The move also simultaneously strengthens the BJP’s bond with its own NDA partners, including Chirag Paswan’s LJP-RV, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM, Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal and Ramdas Athawale’s RPI (A), which had all backed demands for caste enumeration in the Census.

Caste enumeration has been a major plank of the Congress party and a bulk of its allies from the INDIA bloc since last year’s Lok Sabha poll campaign. Additionally, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly pushed not just for enumeration of caste but also details of socio-economic status of all citizens – on the lines of the yet unpublished UPA-era Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) – and said the exercise should be a precursor to the upward revision of reservation quotas, commensurate with percentage of population, for backward castes, scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.

Also fead: Vokkaligas and Veerashaivas may join hands to counter caste census imposition

Congress gives credit to Rahul Gandhi

Many in the Congress believe it was Rahul’s strident push for a caste census that attracted sizeable sections of backward communities to the party and contributed significantly to the spike in the party’s Lok Sabha tally to 99 MPs in last June’s polls compared to the 52 seats the Congress had won back in 2019. Leaders close to Rahul have often said that it was this assumption that led the Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition to boldly challenge the Prime Minister in Parliament last June to “either get the Caste Census done or we will do it when we come to power”.

Key Congress allies, including Lalu and Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) and MK Stalin’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), had also been strident votaries of a nationwide caste census. The RJD had an added advantage on this plank as it was part of the Bihar government when the state published a caste survey on October 2, 2023, months before chief minister Nitish Kumar dumped Tejashwi’s party and the Congress as allies and rekindled the JD-U’s alliance with the BJP.

Before the Lok Sabha campaign, conducting caste surveys at the state level had been part of the Congress manifesto in every assembly poll since 2023. Since the Congress stormed to power in Telangana, Rahul had been personally invested in getting the party’s Revanth Reddy-led government to expedite conducting caste enumeration in the state. In Congress-ruled Karnataka, however, repeated prodding of chief minister Siddaramaiah by Rahul to make public findings of a similar survey have gone unheeded.

The Centre’s decision to finally give in to the demands for caste enumeration, even if the timeline for the exercise remains indeterminate, is expected to significantly blunt the Congress and wider INDIA bloc’s diatribe over the hitherto perceived resistance against a caste census by the Modi regime.

Also read: Karnataka caste census decision may take a year: Minister Satish Jarkiholi

Bihar election

That the CCPA’s nod comes months ahead of the Bihar election, a state where caste faultlines and caste politics both run deep, is expected to take the sting out of any Opposition onslaught against the BJP revolving around allegations of the saffron party being anti-backward castes.

Though the state was the first to carry out a caste survey – and at a time when both RJD and Congress were part of the Nitish Kumar government – Rahul has been dismissive of the initiative. At a Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan organised by his party in Patna, Gandhi had left his party colleagues from the state as well as the RJD leadership red-faced when he dismissed the Bihar caste survey as a “fraud”. The Congress had later tried to cover up the gaffe by claiming that Gandhi only meant to chastise the JD (U)-BJP government for not following up the survey with concrete steps to better the lot of backward castes, SCs, STs and minorities, which collectively constitute over 84 percent of Bihar’s population.

Modi humbles detractors

The frenzied rush among Opposition leaders to claim credit for pushing the government to concede its demand for caste enumeration only goes to show that Modi has, yet again, succeeded in humbling his rivals on a key political issue. The best that the Opposition can do on the matter now is to continue claiming credit while seeking clarity from the Centre on nuances such as when the Census exercise would commence, how exactly would the caste enumeration be carried out or whether the Centre would also consider breaking the 50 percent ceiling on caste-based reservations once the Census is over.

Just as it did when the BJP succeeded in getting the Women’s Reservation Bill passed by Parliament in September 2023, the Opposition, of course, can criticize the government for not divulging a clear timeline for the implementation of the CCPA’s decision. This, however, is unlikely to have the same political sting as the Opposition’s charge until now of the Centre being against caste enumeration.