The Congress will soon launch a 100-day “OBC Hak Hunkar” campaign against the Union government’s methodology for the upcoming caste census, alleging that the format could lead to undercounting of the OBC population.
“Among the 40 questions notified for the upcoming census, Question No. 10 clearly demonstrates that the Modi government is evading a proper caste census. Because of regional dialects, synonyms and spelling variations, jaihind also raised concerns over the open-ended format of Question No 10, saying caste names could be recorded differently.
“The nationwide campaign will begin with a memorandum to the governor addressed to the President, followed by marches in all districts where party workers will submit a memorandum to DMs. The Modi government has skipped the OBC column while retaining SC and ST columns. For this question, the government has opted for an ‘open-ended’ format, whereas a ‘dropdown list’ was essential,” Jaihind added. He demanded a verified list of recognised castes for enumerators. Rajendra Pal Gautam, in-charge of UP Congress, demanded that the existing questionnaire be cancelled and a new one prepared using a verified caste list.
“Caste census will actually expose allies of the BJP such as Anupriya Patel, OP Rajbhar and Sanjay Nishad who claim before their community people for getting them jobs and other facilities but actually fail to do so,” Manoj Yadav, chairman OBC Wing for UP Congress said. We will ensure OBCs and their sub-castes are included,” said Anil Jaihind, AICC OBC department chairman, at a press conference with Rajendra Pal Gautam on Saturday.
