Caste census: Parties send their views

The manner and mechanism of including caste in the ongoing Census operations could prove to be a bigger hurdle than expected even as political parties now ready with their written responses to the Centre....

The manner and mechanism of including caste in the ongoing Census operations could prove to be a bigger hurdle than expected even as political parties now ready with their written responses to the Centre seem to be sharing similar views regarding affirmative action on the issue.

Leaders of different political parties told The Indian Express on Sunday that they were ready with their responses to be sent to the Leader of the Lok Sabha and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,but indicated that they had suggested their own roadmaps for implementing caste in the Census operations. The CPIs Gurudas Dasgupta,BJDs Arjun Charan Sethi and Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM said they would send in their responses in the next two days.

Mukherjee also had discussions with BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde last week,who too is said to have assured him of sending his partys response shortly. Mukherjee has set August 7 as the deadline for parties to send their opinion on the issue. Only four parties,including the Samajwadi party and the JDU,have sent their responses so far.

The Left parties particularly will be telling Mukherjee to avoid any headcount that will give out population of each caste or community. In our response,which we will send Monday,we have made it clear that the mechanism should be such that only the number of OBCs should be established. The government should avoid any headcount on community basis, CPIs Dasgupta said.

His stand was endorsed by CPMs Acharya,who said they would object to any mechanism where the population of each caste and community could be established. Our party stand was made clear in the debate itself. We are supporting caste census only to the extent that the number of OBCs is established. I am,however,personally not aware of any letter from Pranab Mukherjee, he said.

On the other side of the spectrum are parties like the Samajwadi party and the JDU who contend that there is nothing wrong in having a new caste column in the Census papers. I have already given a roadmap to Pranab Mukherjee spelling out how caste headcount can be done, JDU leader Sharad Yadav said.

SP general secretary Mohan Singh said having a caste headcount would not harm the social fabric of the country and that his party had already sent its response to the Congress leadership. Caste census is a must as reflected in the will of the Lok Sabha in the last debate, he said.

Story continues below this ad

Smaller parties like the BJD and AIMIM too contend that they have not given any caveats. We have supported caste census in the last debate and will reiterate this position in our letter, said BJDs Arjun Charan Sethi.

Three parties,the RLD,TDP and the Shiv Sena,on the other hand,maintained they had not received any communication from Pranab Mukherjee. In any case,such a thing cannot be done by writing letters. The government must call an all-party meeting to discuss it, RLD chief Ajit Singh said. TDP leader Nama Nageshwar Rao too reiterated the need for an all-party meeting.

Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi,on the other hand,said his party had opposed census on the basis of communities.

According to political circles,though,the biggest obstacle could come from within the Congress. The Cabinet has seen divisions over caste headcount with those like Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Water Resources Minister Pawan Bansal supporting it,while others like sports minister MS Gill,commerce and industries minister Anand Sharma and HRD minister Kapil Sibal opposed to the idea.