The Hindu Right, especially the upper castes, are livid with the ruling BJP for what seems to be a policy U-turn on the caste census. They blame the Narendra Modi government for betraying the general category, giving in to Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s divisive agenda, and bringing in Mandal Commission 2.0 (3.0 if we take into account the last declared caste census held by the British in 1931).

It is the final vial of poison being thrown into the well of Hindu unity, many believe.

Then why has the BJP-led government at the Centre done it? Why time it when India and Pakistan are standing on the precipice of war after the Pahalgam Islamic terror attack? Is the Bihar election, much later this year, the reason to set off a social dynamite which has the potential to shake the entire nation?

There are grave risks. Immediate social and political unrest, for one. Also, five, 10 or 20 years from now, a different government may raise the quota to 75 per cent from the current 50 per cent, and bring in reservation in the private sector, depriving millions of meritorious Indians who do not fall in the backwards caste bucket.

But here are six reasons which may have prompted the Modi government’s decision to approve the caste census.

First, the Centre had to do it. Opposition-ruled states like Bihar (when JDU-RJD-Congress was in power), Karnataka, and Telangana had done local, opaque surveys, which they called ‘caste census’.

But only the Centre is........

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