Congress Plays down Veteran Anand Sharma's Reservations over Caste Census

The Congress party backs Rahul’s stand saying caste census is needed for social justice after party veteran and CWC member Anand Sharma dashed off a letter to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge where the former Union Minister noted the Congress never did identity politics and should desist from playing up the caste census issue, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress played down the concerns over the caste census expressed by veteran Anand Sharma and said the grand old party had always been committed to social justice. “The Congress party has always represented the interests of all sections of society. The party has not deviated from its ideology,” Congress Working Committee member Syed Naseer Hussain told ETV Bharat.

He was responding to the letter written by party veteran and CWC member Anand Sharma to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge where the former Union Minister noted the Congress never did identity politics and should desist from playing up the caste census issue.

“National caste census has emerged as an important issue in the electoral debate. This has been endorsed by the INDIA bloc led by the Congress party. Parties in the alliance include those who have practised caste politics for a long. However, Congress's policy on social justice has been based on maturity and an informed understanding of the complexities of Indian society. Though caste is a reality of Indian society, Congress has never engaged in nor endorsed identity politics. That is detrimental to democracy in a society with a rich diversity of region, religion, caste and ethnicity. In my view a caste census cannot be a solution for unemployment and prevailing inequalities,” Sharma said in his letter on March 19.

Holding a fresh caste census, if the Congress-led INDIA bloc is voted to power, is going to be one of the key promises in the Congress poll manifesto. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi, too, has been flagging the issue over the past months. AICC secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh Chandan Yadav refused to comment on the motive behind Sharma’s letter, but said the caste census was needed for policy-making based on social justice.

“I don’t know why he has written this letter now, but I can say that the Congress has always been concerned about social justice and has always taken affirmative action to implement social justice be it the abolition of Privy Purses by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi or the grant of 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs in education and jobs during the previous party government. The concept had been approved during party conventions for decades,” Chandan Yadav told ETV Bharat.

Party insiders wondered why Sharma was coming out with his reservations over the issue when the Congress was in the midst of the Lok Sabha poll campaign and was about to release its manifesto. “The caste census is not a political issue, but it will provide us with the basis of good governance. Caste is a reality of Indian social and political life and there must be a proper enumeration of various social groups to decide how the central funds should be distributed equitably,” said Yadav.

According to party insiders, the previous UPA government had done a socio-economic census in its second tenure, but could not release the data before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP came to power. “It would have been good if the data had been published,” Rahul had said last year when a query was put to him over caste census. “There must be a clear difference between caste, a social reality and casteism, which should be avoided,” said Yadav.