'Caste census has no sanctity'

The Congress government in Telangana has claimed to have conducted a caste census, and promised to bring a bill to enhance backward classes reservation to 42 per cent.

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The Congress government in Telangana has claimed to have conducted a caste census, and promised to bring a bill to enhance backward classes reservation to 42 per cent. BJP MP Eatala Rajender, who hails from the backward classes and is a contender for the post of the state party president, spoke to The Statesman's Anindita Chowdhury on the fallacies of this much-publicized caste census, and why Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's demand for a nationwide caste census was not feasible.

Rajender is the Member of Parliament from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency. He had served as the first finance minister of Telangana from 2014 to 2018 and as the state health minister from 2019 to 2021.

Q. Will the Congress reap any political benefit from the caste census and enhanced BC (backward classes) reservation in Telangana?

A. Nothing will come out of this exercise. On the contrary, it is going to boomerang on the Congress. There is no legal sanctity for this caste census. The state government should have done it through a dedicated commission in a time-bound manner.

All findings mentioned in their report are also wrong. All the figures have gone up - for Scheduled Castes, it has gone up from 15 to 17 per cent; Scheduled Tribes from 9 to 10.6 per cent, and the numbers for forward castes also increased but only the OBC (other backward class) numbers have gone down.