Telangana’s caste survey has the potential to stir a hornet’s nest. Though the Congress government neither tabled the survey in the assembly nor made its contents public, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy gave a snapshot of the findings. The survey says the backward classes constitute 46.25 percent of the state’s population, scheduled castes 17.43 percent, scheduled tribes 10.45 percent, and other castes 17.43 percent. The survey was conducted to follow up on the Congress’s campaign promise of raising the quotas for BCs and SCs.
There are strong arguments on all sides about holding a caste census, though no political party dares openly take a stand against it. The objective, as the Congress claims, is to gather data to ensure the backward classes their due shares in the political, social and economic spheres. On the face of it, it sounds reasonable. But political compulsions in Karnataka, which is also governed by the Congress, made its government hesitate about making its own caste survey report public. Similar calculations could play out in Telangana. The opposition is up in arms against the government for not tabling the report and for the differences in the latest report from the extensive household survey conducted by the previous regime, Aadhaar numbers and Election Commission data.
Granted that there could be a small margin of error, we need to look at whether the survey serves the objective of providing justice to the backward classes. From a political standpoint, even Congress insiders fear that if there are claims for the numbers to be translated into proportionate quotas, for which a constitutional amendment would be required, the party could face the wrath of several communities, including the powerful upper castes. Since parliament will have to act, it is unlikely that the Congress demand will be acceded to. In which case, the party may have to at least accommodate more BCs, SCs, STs and minorities in the state cabinet and the forthcoming local body polls. Failure to do so may backfire. Status quo is unlikely to work given that backward class leaders are already threatening agitations if the quota is not raised. It would be difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.