Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday welcomed the government’s “sudden” decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming population census, stating that it comes after “11 years of opposing it.” He also demanded the government present a budget and a clear timeline for its implementation.
His comments came hours after the Union Cabinet announced that caste enumeration would be included in the forthcoming census exercise in a “transparent” manner.
Addressing a press conference, the Congress leader said, “We support this completely but we want a timeline. We want to know when it will be done.”
While reiterating the demand for removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations, Gandhi said funds should be allocated for the caste census. He acknowledged the Union Cabinet’s announcement as the “first step” and said Telangana is a model for implementing the caste census.
He said, “This is the first step and Telangana is a model for caste census. We will design the caste census. There are two examples: Telangana and Bihar. There is a huge difference.”
The Congress described the government’s decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census as “better late than never” and asserted that it had been demanding this for long.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while announcing the decision in a cabinet briefing, claimed that Congress and its INDIA alliance partners have used caste census time and again as a political tool, adding that the previous UPA governments failed to conduct a caste census but held surveys.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have time and again demanded a nationwide caste census, making it a major electoral issue. Bihar, Telangana, and Karnataka have already conducted caste-based surveys at the state level.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the party had raised the issue in its resolution on social justice, which was passed in Ahmedabad on April 9, 2025. “Better late than never,” he said in a post on X.
Ramesh also shared screenshots of the resolution ‘Nyaypath’ in which the party had listed its initiatives for achieving social justice.
Later, Ramesh also shared a letter written by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dated April 16, 2023, in which he had demanded that the decennial census be carried out and a comprehensive caste census be made a part of it.
