Kharge wrote to the Prime Minister on caste census; calling for the adoption of the Telangana model
New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the government's caste census decision, urging him to learn from the Telangana model and to have dialogue with all political parties on the issue.
In his letter to Modi, Karge also urged the Prime Minister to remove the 50% cap of reservations through a constitutional amendment and immediately implement Article 15 (5) to provide reservations for SCS, STS and OBC in private educational institutions.
“Practice any exercise, such as the caste census, makes the backward, oppressed and marginalized parts of our society impossible to be seen as split in any way,” Harj said.
In a letter to Modi on 5 May, he said: “Our great country and people of great heart always gather together as one person when they need it, just as we have done recently in the cowardly terrorist attacks in Pahalgam.”
Congress believes that it is absolutely necessary to conduct a caste census in a comprehensive manner, namely to ensure equality of status and opportunity promised in the preamble of our Constitution.
The president recalled that this also wrote to the Prime Minister on April 16, 2023, proposing Congress’s demand for the latest caste census.
“Sadly, I have never received any replies to this letter. Unfortunately, your party leader and yourself continue to attack Congress and its leadership to raise this legitimate need you recognize today, which is in the interest of deeper social justice and empowerment.”
“You have now announced that without providing any details, the next census (actually expired in 2021) will also include caste as a separate category,” he noted.
Hager said he had three suggestions, the first one being about the design of the census questionnaire. Karger pointed out that caste information must not be for computational purposes but for greater socio-economic goals.
“The recent combined Telangana caste survey is in mind the design and implementation of such a goal. The Ministry of the Union's Interior must draw on the Telangana model – this is the method of finally raising the questionnaire, as well as the question ultimately raised.”
He said that ultimately, nothing in the published report should not be concealed so as to provide complete socio-economic data for each caste to provide that they have constitutional rights and that socio-economic progress can be measured from one census to another.
Hager also noted that since August 1994, only the Tamil Nadu reservation law has been protected in the ninth timeline of our constitution.
Furthermore, regardless of the results of the caste census, it is obvious that the arbitrarily imposed 50% of the ceiling is the booked caste, booked tribe and OBC reservations must be removed by constitutional amendment, Halger claims.
The President of Congress also called for the immediate implementation of Article 15, Article 5. He said: “Article 15(5) of the Indian Constitution, which came into force on 20 January 2006, was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court. Finally, shortly before the extension of the deliberation on 29 January 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the court, which was shortly before the typical code of conduct for the entry into force of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.”
Karger noted that it also offers bookings for booking castes, booking tribes and OBCs for private educational institutions. He said: “On March 25, 2025, the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports submitted its 364th report on the needs of the Ministry of Higher Education grants on March 25, 2025.”
Opposition parties, including Congress, have been demanding a national caste census, making it a major election issue. Some states such as Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka have conducted such surveys.
The Secretary-General of the Congress, Jairam Ramesh, shared a letter from Kharge at the CWC meeting on May 2, with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge Ji last night writing to PM on Mr Modi's sudden and desperate Caste Census u-Turn, and even the Nation Caste Census terrorist attack, and was furious in anger. “Haggeji made three very specific suggestions,” he said.
