A report in this newspaper (‘Note on meeting over caste census rewritten after Ministry pushback’, IE, September 3) about the alleged “miscommunication” between the Registrar General of India (RGI) office (which conducts the census) and the Ministry of Social Justice (MoSJ) (which maintains lists of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes), suggest that the curious case of the caste census just got curiouser. After an abrupt about-turn on this issue before the 2024 elections, the Modi government first postponed the census beyond reasonable limits (doubtless because of the impending delimitation), then unveiled a thinly disguised attempt to sabotage the effort through an “open-ended” question on caste, rather than using drop-down lists along with an “Others” option for unlisted caste names. The excuse given then was that caste lists were not available. It is now clear that this was never true, and that the MoSJ had in fact offered to supply the RGI with the SC and OBC lists. This takes to new heights the attempts made by governments to avoid, prevent or sabotage the caste count. The Congress did it in 2011, and now the BJP is doing it even more blatantly.

Since the 2001 census, every proposal to count caste has attracted immediate and insistent opposition. Different opponents are motivated by different interests, including some who sincerely believe that it is against the larger goal of transcending caste. But the most vocal and effective opposition seems to be inspired by straightforward self-interest,........

© Indian Express