The Congress on Monday accused the Modi government of deliberately excluding the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category from the caste census, alleging a conspiracy to prevent accurate representation of the community in official data.
Anil Jaihind, head of the Congress OBC department, said the absence of a separate OBC column in the census questionnaire violated the principles of social justice and would prevent the community’s actual population from being recorded.
Jaihind alleged that instead of conducting the caste census in a scientific and transparent manner, the government was following a process that could result in OBCs being excluded from official statistics.
He also alleged that a “Manuvadi” (caste-hierarchical) system was operating in practice.
Referring to the notification issued on August 14, Jaihind pointed to the absence of a separate column for OBCs in the 10th question of the census questionnaire.
Congress leader Subhashini Sharad Yadav said the census must accurately capture caste identities, as the nature and manifestation of castes vary across different regions of the country.
(With inputs from PTI)