Why Thomas Piketty in Telangana panel on caste survey analysis has sparked a row

Echoing Rao, his party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “Telangana Congress government has roped in a foreign economic expert, Thomas Piketty, to analyse caste census data. Do they not trust experts from India? Why do they want to share the country’s data with a foreigner?”

This is the second time the Congress has roped in Piketty, who had also advised the party on its minimum income guarantee plan, called the Nyuntam Aay Yojana or NYAY, in 2019. It was part of the Congress’s main poll pitches in the Lok Sabha elections that year.

Dismissing the BJP leaders’ statements as a “silly charge”, Chairman of All India Professional’s Congress Praveen Chakravarty said, “Even a high school student of economics knows that Thomas Piketty is a world renowned expert in analysing data on inequality. If anything, it shows the seriousness with which the Telangana government is undertaking this exercise of socio economic survey.”

The Revanth Reddy government set up the committee last Wednesday after the Opposition parties Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and BJP alleged “undercounting” of Backward Classes (BCs) in the caste survey. The panel, which has been given a month to submit its report, is not mandated to go into the methodology of the caste survey.

A closer look at the panel shows that the Telangana government has roped in experts from various fields such as data and law as well as those with an acute understanding of castes and the history of the state.

These are the members of the 11-member committee:

Justice (retd) B Sudershan Reddy (chairman)

A retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Reddy enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh (then united) in Hyderabad in 1971. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on May 2, 1995, and became the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court on December 5, 2005. Reddy was appointed Supreme Court judge on January 12, 2007, and retired on July 8, 2011.

In February, Justice Reddy said at a lecture in Hyderabad that growing concerns over religious and caste-based conflicts “are not good signs for democracy”.

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd (vice-chairman)

Ilaiah is a political theorist, social activist, and author of books such as “Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Culture, Philosophy and Political Economy”; “Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism; Untouchable God”; and “Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution”. He served as the Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad.

Professor Shantha Sinha

A retired professor of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad, as an activist, Sinha has focused on children’s education and ending child labour.

In 2007, she was appointed the first chairperson of the National Commission for Child Rights (NCPCR) and served two terms till 2013. She has received several awards such as the Padma Shri (1998) and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (2003). She is the founder-secretary of M V Foundation, a rights-based NGO in Hyderabad that has helped education become accessible to children.

Professor Himanshu

A professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at JNU, Delhi, Himanshu has worked in the fields of poverty, inequality, employment, agriculture, and development economics. He has written papers on the Bihar caste survey, analysing its findings.

Sukhdeo Thorat

Thorat served as UGC chairman between 2006 and 2011 and as the director of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi, from 2003 to 2006. He is a professor emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU, and is considered an expert on Dr B R Ambedkar.

Nikhil Dey

A social activist based in Rajasthan, Dey is associated with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). His area of work ranges from the Right to Information (RTI), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Lokpal Bill and the Right to Food.

Bhangya Bhukya

An expert on Modern Indian History, Bhukya’s work includes studying the Banjara and Gond tribes. He has been teaching history at the University of Hyderabad since 2014.

K Purushotham Reddy

Reddy is an acclaimed academic, environmentalist, and activist who has, over his career, held various academic positions in Osmania University and has also served as the Director for the Centre for Environmental Studies.

Jean Drèze

A Belgian-born Indian economist, social scientist and activist, Dreze’s work is related to developmental issues facing India such as social welfare, poverty and gender inequality. Dreze is a former member of the UPA government’s National Advisory Council.

Thomas Piketty

A professor of Economics and Economic History at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Paris School of Economics, Piketty’s research deals with the intersection of historical political economy and socio-economic history. He has done historic and theoretical work on the interplay between economic development, the distribution of income and wealth, and political conflict.

He is the author of several books including “Capital in the 21st century” (2014), “Capital and ideology” (2020) and “A Brief History of Equality” (2022).

Praveen Chakravarty

Chakravarty heads the All India Professional’s Congress and is also part of the recently constituted Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) that has been tasked by the party to “monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission (EC)”.

A close confidant of Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Chakravarty was appointed the chairman of All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) in November 2023.