New Delhi, August 25: Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday accused the Modi government of deliberately diluting the caste census planned for 2027, describing the proposed questionnaire as a “whitewash” and “self-sabotage” that would render the exercise meaningless for social justice.
Addressing the media at the AICC headquarters at 24 Akbar Road, Ramesh said Leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi (Lok Sabha) and Mallikarjun Kharge (Rajya Sabha) had written a detailed 21-page letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 20. The letter, the third on the subject from the Congress leadership, demanded an immediate overhaul of the methodology notified by the Home Ministry on August 14.
According to the notification, the 2027 Census will have 40 questions, with the 10th question seeking caste information in an open-ended format. Ramesh argued that this approach repeats the flaws of the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census, which the government itself had criticised in a September 21, 2021 Supreme Court affidavit. That affidavit, filed by the Education Ministry, noted that the absence of a pre-prepared registry and dropdown menu had produced inconsistent data with varying spellings and symbols, making it unreliable.
“The government said in its own affidavit that a dropdown menu would have been ideal,” Ramesh said. “Yet the 10th question is open-ended. This is not a caste census. It is a fraud and a betrayal.”
He recalled that the Congress had been pressing for a proper caste census since 2021. Kharge wrote to the Prime Minister on April 16, 2023, and again on May 5, 2025, after the government announced on April 30, 2025, that caste enumeration would form part of the 2027 Census. Both letters went unanswered. In April 2024, the then non-biological candidate Narendra Modi had dismissed the demand as an “urban Naxal” idea.
Ramesh contrasted the current format with the caste surveys conducted by Bihar (results published October 2, 2023) and Telangana (results published February 4, 2025). Both used pre-prepared state-wise lists of castes—215 in Bihar’s case—and a structured two-step process: first the category (SC/ST/OBC/Others), then the specific sub-caste from a dropdown list handed to enumerators. The Congress letter has annexed those questionnaires and lists and urged the Centre to adopt the same system nationally.
“There is still time,” Ramesh said. Enumeration has begun only in snow-bound areas of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and parts of Uttarakhand. The nationwide exercise is scheduled for February 2027. “In the next two-three months the government can prepare state-wise lists, introduce a proper dropdown, hold an all-party meeting and consult experts. The lists already exist with every state and the Centre.”
He linked the issue to constitutional social justice and the efficacy of reservation. Without accurate OBC data—never comprehensively counted since Independence—the foundational pillar of population-linked affirmative action remains weak. Ramesh also pointed to Kharge’s recent observation that nearly 8.5 lakh sanctioned posts in the central government remain unfilled, with a third in the railways alone, disproportionately affecting SC, ST and OBC aspirants.
Ramesh rejected the suggestion that preparing dropdown lists was impractical, noting that states already maintain formal caste lists used for reservation in education and employment, and that the Mandal Commission list exists at the national level. He said the opposition parties are united on the demand and that the Congress would keep the issue alive through parliamentary and public pressure while still expecting the government to act on the constructive suggestions in the letter.
“We welcome the U-turn of April 2025,” Ramesh concluded. “But a second U-turn that empties the exercise of meaning will not be accepted. Social justice cannot be delivered through a whitewash.”