The development has come as a major embarrassment for Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, who recently caste aspersions on the BJP government at the Centre regarding the conduct of a national caste survey.
The Central government on Wednesday announced that the Population Census-2027 will be conducted in two phases, and will also include enumeration of castes.
This caste census conducted in 1931 continued to influence Indian politics for decades to come. It was stated in this report that the total population of Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the country is 52%. On this basis, politics like 'backwards should get 60 out of 100' started. This politics later on turned into Mandal-Kamandal politics.
While the grand old party set out to divide the Hindu vote bank, it ended up creating warring factions within the Congress. This explains why an otherwise stern, decisive and loudmouth Siddaramiah is now taking a softer approach, placating his own party members and vowing to promptly correct errors in the existing survey.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that the concept of 'merit' is flawed and inherently discriminatory to the SCs, STs and the OBCs. He also claimed that merit is unfair and an 'upper-caste narrative'.
Rahul Gandhi’s Telangana government conducted a 2024 caste survey, controversially classifying 80% of Muslims as Backward Castes despite an SC ruling against it.