Caste census: Allocate sufficient funds, fix time limit, Kharge tells govt

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday urged for allocation of sufficient funds and fixing of a time limit for the caste enumeration in the next census, which has been announced by the Central government.

The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said, Congress and other opposition parties demanded for caste census and had staged agitation for it throughout the country, and now they are happy that they have achieved what they intended for.

"I had written a letter two years back on caste census along with general census, they did not agree then, but now the government has taken a decision to conduct a caste census along with general census. It is a good thing and we will fully cooperate for this, but they (BJP) should not comment unnecessarily on Jawaharlal Nehru saying he was opposed to it, this and that," Kharge said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, Jan Sangh and RSS by birth are against reservation, and such people are talking about Congress not being in favour of caste census.

"If we were against the caste census, would I have written the letter two years ago or would we have done many agitations for it? They (BJP) try to create confusion in the minds of the people and try to project that they are the only people interested in the country's welfare. It is bogus. I don't agree. For political purposes they always do such things," he added.

In a major decision, the union government on Wednesday decided to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census exercise in a "transparent" manner.

Urging the government to fulfill the announcement made, Kharge said, as of today the government has not allocated sufficient money for it, and asked without money how the survey can be conducted?

He said, "they should also give a time limit. If the time limit is not there, it will take a long time. Therefore my suggestion is that they should give special attention to this and within two-three months or whatever time limit fixed by the government, as early as possible, they should conduct the survey and fulfil the promise and what the people wanted."  The AICC chief in response to a question said, he doesn't think that the caste census was announced keeping in mind the upcoming Bihar polls.

"I don't want to go into politics. Whatever is good I welcome it, whatever is bad I oppose, because ultimately the country is important, people are important. As people wanted caste census, we agitated demanding it....all opposition parties pressured and agitated for it throughout the country, and Rahul Gandhi took a lead in demanding for caste census, we have achieved it and we are happy," he said.

Reiterating that he welcomes the decision to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census, he further said, "it should be done soon, it should not be a showoff, and the economic and educational survey should be done in a perfect manner satisfying everyone."  On caste surveys done by some states including Karnataka being criticised as unscientific, Kharge said, "let's see, now that they (Centre) are doing it.