Congress chief Kharge writes to PM Modi asking him to have dialogue with all political parties on caste census

Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking the government to have a dialogue with all political parties on caste-census, even as he urged the Modi Government to follow the Telangana model of caste survey for the national census. 

Mr. Kharge also asked the government not to “conceal anything” in the final caste census and place the socio-economic data of each caste in the public domain. He also reiterated the party’s stance on removing the 50% ceiling on reservation by amending the Constitution.

“In fact, I would request you to have a dialogue with all political parties soon on the issue of the caste census,”Mr. Kharge in his letter, dated May 5, made public on Tuesday (May 6, 2025).

Talking about the importance of the design of the questionnaire, he said, “The Union Home Ministry must draw upon the Telangana model—both the methodology adopted for finalizing the questionnaire, as well the final set of questions asked”.

“Nothing in the report published finally should be concealed so that complete socio-economic data of each caste is made available to provide them their constitutionally enabled rights and the socio-economic progress can be measured from one census to another,” the Congress chief added.

Pointing out that only the Tamil Nadu reservations law has been protected in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution since August 1994, Mr. Kharge said “laws of other States should also be included in the Ninth Schedule of our Constitution”. 

“Moreover, whatever the results of the caste census will be, it is abundantly clear that the arbitrarily imposed 50% ceiling on reservations for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs must be removed by a Constitutional amendment,” he added.

The Congress chief also reiterated the need to implement Article 15(5) that provides for reservations for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs in private educational institutions as well. 

“In its 364th Report on the Demand for Grants for the Department of Higher Education, submitted on 25th March 2025 the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports had also recommended a new legislation to implement Article 15(5),” he noted.

The Congress chief, who started his letter by recalling how the Prime Minister and his colleagues had “attacked” the Congress for raising the issue of social justice, asserted that caste census is “absolutely necessary to ensure social and economic justice and equality of status and opportunity as pledged in the Preamble of our Constitution”.

“Conducting any exercise such as the caste census which gives the backward, the oppressed and the marginalized sections of our society, their rights cannot and should not be considered divisive in any way,” Mr. Kharge noted.