Modi govt wants to put caste census in cold storage: Congress
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Sunday alleged that the government wants to put the caste census in "cold storage" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to amend the women's reservation law with the agenda of "misleading" the country.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A on the grounds that the "caste census results will not be available for a few years", overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months.
Article 334-A includes the provision that reservation of seats for women would take effect following an exercise of census and delimitation. The government has, however, decided to delink the implementation of the women's quota from the census exercise, which will include caste enumeration, to fast-track it.
"It is clear that the Modi government wants to put the caste census in cold storage," Ramesh claimed on X, dubbing it the "hidden agenda".
There was no immediate response from the government to the Congress' allegations.
Ramesh said that the government had been averse to a caste case and pointed out that on July 20, 2021, it answered a question in Lok Sabha stating that it decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the Census.
On September 21, 2021, the Modi government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that it has taken a conscious policy decision not to conduct a caste census, Ramesh said.
"On April 28, 2024, in a television interview, the Prime Minister accused the Congress of having an urban naxal mindset for championing the cause of a caste census," the Congress leader said.
On April 30, 2025, as the country was still in shock after the Pahalgam terror attack that occurred a few days earlier, the Modi government suddenly announced that the caste census would be conducted as a part of the upcoming census, he said.
Ramesh pointed out that in a widely-reported press conference on March 30, 2026, the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner said most of the results of the ongoing Census 2027 would be available in 2027 itself since the entire Census is being conducted digitally.
"But now the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A, saying that the caste census results will not be available for a few years - overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months," he said.
The prime minister is, as usual, "misleading" the country and engaging in massive deception, Ramesh said.
"He now wants to amend what the Parliament had unanimously passed in September 2023. The hidden agenda is simply not to have the caste census," the Congress general secretary said.
The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, at the presser on March 30, had asked people to provide accurate information to census enumerators, asserting that individual data will remain confidential and cannot be used as evidence or to obtain any benefit under any scheme.
Asked about caste being included in the Census and the apprehension that people may not furnish correct information, Narayan said at a press conference the data related to caste will be collected during the second phase, and the questions will be decided after exhaustive discussions.
"Earlier, data was collected on physical paper, which took a lot of time in digitisation. We will start collecting digital data from the outset, so we will be able to issue it very early. Many data sets will be published in 2027," Narayan had said.
The Congress' attack on the government comes days ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament, during which the government is set to bring bills to implement the Women's Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women.
The Congress has accused the Modi government of playing politics in the name of the women's reservation law and asserted that the proposed delimitation exercise linked to it was "not constitutional" and could have "grave consequences" that warrant thorough deliberation after the ongoing assembly polls.
At a Congress Working Committee meeting, it was decided that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would call a meeting of top leaders of all opposition parties, most likely on April 15, to discuss and formulate a joint strategy for the "special session" of Parliament from April 16 to 18.
In a letter to the prime minister, Kharge has said it would be "impossible" to have any useful discussion on the women's quota law without details of delimitation and other aspects, and demanded that an all-party meeting be called on the matter after the current round of state polls gets over on April 29.
Kharge said that calling Parliament's special sitting amid state polls reinforces the belief that the government is hurrying the implementation of the women's reservation law for "political mileage".
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
