Digvijay Singh, the AICC general secretary, on Thursday called for caste census as the proponents of caste enumeration in the national headcount moved to nudge the Centre ahead of a decision on the contentious issue by a group of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee.
Digviajy Singh was upfront in demanding caste census as he said that all political parties had accepted caste as a reality with Mandal commission. Releasing a book "Caste Census: Towards an Inclusive India" by S Japhet and Chandan Gowda of National Law School University, Bangalore, Singh said the country wished a "casteless society" but could not wish away the fact that caste remains a ground reality. "I do not understand the opposition to it," he said.
Singh's advocacy of caste census came as chairman of National Commission for Backward Classes MN Rao said opposition to the move could be a ploy to get the reservation policy scrapped. He said the Supreme Court has repeatedly sniggered at backward reservation being implemented without ascertainable data of the target groups and not holding the census could lead to scrapping of reservation altogether.
Sources said Congress is likely to settle for caste census. The caste enumeration may be included at the time of collection of biometric data in the decennial census, the last stage of the exercise. The inclusion of caste at the biometric stage will also allay fears that a motivation to inflate figures among the interested caste groups will compromise the important census data. Till then, Congress is keeping silent on the issue in view of divisions within.
