NEW DELHI: The government should come out with a clear-cut plan for undertaking caste census and leaders of various political parties should be consulted on it, CPI-M general secretary MA Baby said on Thursday.
He also demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack and the situation in its aftermath.
Speaking after hoisting the CPI(M) flag at the party headquarters here to mark Labour Day, Baby said demand for caste census has been made by all opposition parties, including the CPI(M).
"Government has to come out with clear-cut program when they are going to do the census. And in that, they can make their own decisions and we can react, or there can even be a consultation with floor leaders of various political parties in Parliament," he said.
In a major decision, the government on Wednesday announced that caste enumeration will be included in the forthcoming census exercise in a "transparent" manner.
Baby noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said on multiple occasions that there are only four castes in India - poor, youth, women and farmers.
However, he has now been "forced" to undertake the caste census, he stated.
"We communists and Left forces fight for the rights of youth, workers, peasants, women and so on... caste oppression continues in Indian society, and caste discrimination leads to lots of problems, including the suicide or extrajudicial murder of Rohit Vemula," he said.
Vemula, a Dalit student of University of Hyderabad, died by suicide on campus allegedly due to caste-based discrimination in 2016.
Baby said the last caste census was conducted almost a century ago, and it is important to know the socio-economic situation of different caste groups.
"Last time there was a census where socio-economic positions of different groups - Dalits, castes, backward castes and all -- were assessed during British time, in 1930-31," he said.
"This is not to quantify how many castes are there, some people view it like that. What is the socio-economic condition, educational position of different castes? What is being provided to the marginalised sections, are they being uplifted?" he said.
Baby added that reservation policies are also part of this.
"So, to plan our socio-economic program in our country, that is very, very important," he said, adding the Modi government, which is now in its third term, has so far been refusing to agree to a caste census.
"Even after the cabinet committee on political affairs took a decision, details are not being worked out. It is just an announcement that as part of the next census, socio-economic position of different castes will also be studied. Data will be collected," he said.
Baby also reiterated the demand for a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack and slammed PM Modi for not attending the all-party meeting on the terror attack that left 26 people dead.
"There was a meeting of political parties, but the prime minister chose to go to Bihar to give a public speech rather than presiding over this political party meeting. So, I don't know what is the priority of the honourable prime minister of our country. In this context, we want a special session of Parliament also to be summarily called," he said.
In his message on Labour Day, Baby stressed on the need to politicising the working class.
"We have to politicalise the working class also because there are conscious and systematic efforts to divide them. Communal forces are trying to divide people on the basis of caste and religion. The entire country condemned the attack in Kashmir in a single voice, this situation is also being exploited to make communal divisions in our country," he said.
"If we are unable to preserve the unity of the working class, the very idea of India would be assaulted. When we observe this historic May Day which gives us inspiration to carry on our struggle we have to defend the rights of workers, peasants, youth, students, marginalized sections. At the same time, we have to ensure we remain united against communal and fundamentalist forces," he said.
