Congress welcomes decision on caste census: Rahul Gandhi

The Congress on Wednesday welcomed the government's decision to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census and demanded allocation of funds to start work at the earliest. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the government should allocate funds to initiate caste census at the earliest with complete transparency, while former party chief Rahul Gandhi said the Centre should give a timeline to implement it. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi credited the sustained campaign run by his party for the announcement and hoped it would not have the same fate as the women's reservation bill. The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha said the Congress will break the “barrier” of 50 per cent cap on reservations and demand the implementation of Article 15(5), which pertains to reservations in private educational institutions. “We urge the government to implement Article 15(5) promptly,” he said.Noting that it is the first step of a completely new development paradigm in the country, he said, “We are going to push this paradigm one way or the other.” “It doesn’t matter what the BJP thinks. We have shown that we can pressure the BJP into doing the caste census,” Gandhi said at the presser.
Gandhi claimed that Telangana serves as a model state for caste census and stressed that it should be a people’s census not bureaucrats’ census. He said that having successfully conducted a comprehensive caste census in the state, “we suggest the national census incorporate some of its effective approaches”. “Caste census is the first step, it is a way to open the door. After that the work of development will start,” he claimed. 

हमने पूरे देश में जमीनी स्तर पर 'जातिगत जनगणना' के लिए अभियान चलाया, जिसका नतीजा सरकार का यह फैसला है।

जातिगत जनगणना पहला कदम है, ये दरवाजा खोलने का तरीका है। उसके बाद विकास का काम शुरू होगा।

तेलंगाना में जातिगत सर्वे से हमें जो जानकारी आ रही है, उसमें कॉर्पोरेट स्ट्रक्चर के… pic.twitter.com/33vGnulZBa

— Congress (@INCIndia) April 30, 2025

Kharge hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he had been “avoiding” the implementation of this policy of social justice while accusing the opposition of “dividing the society” on the lines of caste.