Caste census to be included in next population survey: Modi Cabinet's path-breaking decision
Announcing the big Cabinet decision, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw trained guns on the Congress, saying the grand old party always opposed the caste census.
Of course it is the most anti-climax Cabinet announcement in post-Pahalgam era when journalists and the rest of India hoped the cabinet briefing would throw focus on Cabinet Committee on Security decisions lately.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a high-level meeting on Tuesday evening gave 'full operational freedom' to armed forces to decide about India's response against terror and Pakistan after the April 22 unprecedented terror strike that killed 26 people - mostly Hindus.
The announcement on caste census will stealing a major thunder of the Opposition camp -- something overused by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to corner the Congress.
That's Moditva style, as they put it !! This also shows that unlike Pakistan wherein 'panicistan syndrome'; life is normal in India and hence domestic politics is business as usual.
No Congressman or any opposition leader would have expected such a decision on Wednesday, April 30 -- eight days after Pahalgam terror strike.
It is a cool political move by Team Modi leaving both its supporters and detractors stunned - especially going by the timing.
"Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to include caste enumeration in forthcoming census exercise," the Union Minister said in a media briefing on Wednesday.
"Congress governments have always opposed the caste census. In 2010, the late Dr Manmohan Singh said that the matter of caste census should be considered in the Cabinet. A group of ministers was formed to consider this subject. Most of the political parties have recommended a caste census.
Despite this, the Congress government decided not to conduct a survey of caste or a caste census," Vaishnaw said.
"It is well understood that the Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used the caste census only as a political tool. Some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes. While some states have done this well, some others conducted such surveys only from a political angle in a non-transparent way," he added.
OTHER KEY DECISIONS TAKEN IN CABINET COMMITTEE MEET
Among other decisions taken at the CCPA meet on Wednesday, the government approved the development of greenfield high-speed corridor of 166.80 km (NH-6) from Mawlyngkhung (near Shillong) in Meghalaya to Panchgram (near Silchar) in Assam on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) at a total cost of Rs.22,864 crore.
The Cabinet Committee also gave its nod to the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane for sugar season 2025-26 at to be Rs 355/quintal for the basic recovery rate of 10.25 per cent, providing a premium of Rs.3.46/quintal for each 0.1 per cent increase in recovery over 10.25 per cent, and reduction in FRP by Rs.3.46/quintal for every 0.1 per cent decrease in recovery.
In reply to a question in Parliament, the Union Home Ministry said: “The raw caste data was provided to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for classification and categorisation… As informed by (the ministry), there is no proposal to release the caste data at this stage.”
In September, the government maintained exclusion of information regarding any other caste, apart from SCs and STs, from the purview of census is a "conscious policy decision“
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