Congress welcomes Bihar's survey, seeks national caste census

Congress welcomed the release of caste survey data by the government of Bihar, where it is part of the ruling coalition. Party leader Rahul Gandhi reiterated that the rights of the people should be proportionate to their numbers and sought a similar caste census at the national level.

"The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC (other backward classes) + SC (scheduled castes) + ST (scheduled tribes) are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the central government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India's budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. Rights of the population should be proportionate to their population (jitni aabadi utna haq) - this is our pledge," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh, while welcoming the release of the caste survey by the Bihar government, said the Congress government in Karnataka too had carried out a similar survey. He did not add, though, that the Karnataka government was yet to release the findings of the 2018 survey.

Demanding that the Centre conduct a caste census, Ramesh said "the UPA-2 government had, in fact, completed this census but its results were not published by the Modi government", even as he papered over the fact that the UPA-2 cabinet had decided not to release the findings of that "census", citing data inaccuracy.