New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) The Congress on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “master of giving a headline without a deadline” and called the government’s caste census decision a “diversionary tactic” in the face of demands for taking strong action against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said many questions arise about the decision, especially on the intention of the government, and asked “where is the deadline” for conducting the census.
Taking a swipe at the prime minister at a debriefing at the party’s 24, Akbar Road office here, Ramesh said he is the “master at giving a headline without a deadline”.
Ramesh also said the BJP government agreeing to a caste census reflected their “moral and political defeat”.
“Mr Modi and the RSS have been dead against a caste census from day 1. That is why yesterday Mr Rahul Gandhi said it was a sudden development,” he said.
“The PM has taken his biggest U-turn, he took a U-turn on GST, Aadhaar, MGNREGA, food security act and now he has taken a U-turn on caste census. Now we know where Nitish Kumar caught this habit of making U-turns, there’s is a ‘jugalbandi’ of U-turns. There is no parallel of the PM in taking U-turns,” Ramesh said.
He said the biggest issue before the country is the Pahalgam attack.
“The biggest issue is how do we deal with terrorism and what response should be given to the mastermind of the terror attack. That is the only issue, all other things are important and their time will come but the main issue is… what response will you give to Pakistan, what justice will you give to the families of the victims,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh noted that Prime Minister Modi had vowed to go after the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack.
“I was thinking that Mohan Bhagwat meeting him, the holding of the CCS and the CCPA are in the context of the Pahalgam attack. I was completely surprised by it (decision of caste census). I could never have imagined that they would do this and that is why I suspect that this is headline management and a diversionary tactic,” he said.
Asserting that the barrier of a 50 per cent cap on reservations should be removed, Ramesh asked what is stopping the Modi government from doing this.
The Congress demands that there should be a Constitutional Amendment and the 50 per cent cap on reservations be removed, he said, adding that the caste census would be meaningful only when this is done.
He also urged the government to implement Article 15(5), which pertains to reservations in private educational institutions.
Ramesh cited a December, 2019 Cabinet meeting press release which stated that the Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for conducting the census of India in 2021 at the cost of Rs 8,254 crore.
He pointed out that there was no mention of caste enumeration in that press release.
“Everyone knows that this census has not been done and six years have passed. Surprisingly, the announcement was made by the government yesterday,” he said.
Ramesh, however, urged the government to keep a roadmap for the caste census before the country.
In the 2025-26 Budget, only Rs 575 crore has been allocated to the office of the census commissioner, he pointed out.
“So what kind of census are they planning to get done in Rs 575 crore? So what is the intention– is it just about giving a headline? What is their intention? Many questions arise on the intention,” the Congress leader said.
“You should have gotten the census done in 2021. They cite the Covid pandemic but more than 50 countries did their census during Covid. The pandemic was not there in 2023, 2024, but they did not get it done,” Ramesh said.
He said when the PM was giving a string of interviews to TV channels last year, he had called those who talk of caste census “urban naxals”.
“Since when did he become an urban naxal? Since when did Home Minister Amit Shah become an urban naxal?” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader recalled that in 2011, a socio-economic and caste census was conducted in rural and urban India with information collected from about 25 crore families.
“It is true that information about caste was not published in this survey, because many flaws were found in it. I was a minister myself and I worked hard with the state governments to find out how we could improve the shortcomings we found in each state. But later the elections came, the code of conduct came into force and we could not publish the information,” Ramesh said.
He expressed happiness that the information about the social and economic conditions obtained through that survey is being used by the Modi government even today.
“But the information collected on caste during our time was being revised in 2013 and this work was not completed before the elections. Then suddenly the government stopped it and said that we will not do caste census. If the states want to do it, let them do it, but we will not do it,” he said.
In the 7th Schedule of our Constitution, the responsibility of conducting the census lies with the central government, but when the governments of Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka did this work, then the government took this decision,” Ramesh said.
His remarks come a day after the Centre announced that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census, with the inclusion of caste details for the first time since independence.
