Its differences with parent organisation RSS forced the BJP to change its stand on caste-based Census as the saffron party on Tuesday demanded an all-party meeting before taking a final decision on the issue. When asked to comment on differences between the RSS and BJP over the issue, party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad
said the government should call an all-party meeting on the issue. He reiterated his party’s stand that such an exercise would help in collecting correct data on castes, the basis for reservation in jobs and education, will be available.
While the BJP favours of such a Census, the RSS is firmly against it and has even asked BJP to rethink its stand on the issue.
The BJP, in the recently-concluded Budget Session, had come out in full support of a caste-based Census. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and his deputy in the House, Mr Gopinath Munde, had supported the caste-based Census claiming that it would provide the exact number of people for whom various government schemes are meant for. Even though party chief Nitin Gadkari had said that the results of a caste-based Census would not be desirable, Ms Swaraj had claimed that supporting the caste-based Census was her party’s line.
On the other hand, the RSS is of the view that a caste-based Census goes against the principle of the father of the Indian Constitution and a dalit icon, Dr B.R. Ambedkar. RSS general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi, who recently sent a letter to the BJP in this regard, feels a caste-based Census would “dilute the objective of creating a casteless society”, one of the main principles of the RSS.
The RSS has demanded that nationality be the basis of the Census.
“The RSS is following the principles of late dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar. Right from the beginning, the RSS is in favour of a casteless society and any attempt to dilute it will hurt the sentiments of people,” Mr Joshi has written in the letter. He has also demanded the government should fix the criteria for giving reservations to OBCs but after consulting social groups.
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Cabinet to take up issue today
MUKESH RANJAN
New Delhi
May 25: The government is all set to take a final call on inclusion of caste as a factor to be enumerated in the ongoing census process, which began on April 1 this year. The government has been forced to move in this direction after regional OBC satraps, including the RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav and the SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, had queered the pitch for doing a caste count as well during the recently-concluded Budget Session of Parliament.
Revealing that the Union Cabinet is likely to take up the matter for discussion in its meeting scheduled for Wednesday, sources in the government said, “A proposal from the home ministry to include OBCs and non-OBCs other than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Census process is high on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting, which will be chaired by the PM.”