On July 20, 2021, Minister of State (Home Affairs) Nityanand Rai announced that the Indian government decided not to enumerate caste-wise population in the Census, except for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
However, the BJP and its leaders often avoided answering questions about caste censuses, while frequently targeting the Congress for using caste to divide society.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP, initially cautioned against using caste censuses as a political tool but acknowledged the need for numbers for welfare activities, particularly for those lagging behind.
The BJP’s ambivalence on caste censuses has persisted for a long time. Just a week ago, on April 23, the Chhattisgarh BJP X handle posted a picture of an Indian Navy lieutenant killed in Pahalgam and his wife sitting beside the body, with the caption "Dharam poochha, jaati nahin" (The religion was asked, not the caste). This post seemed intended to send a message that caste can be divisive.
Clearly, the tide has turned. The announcements surprise the Congress, who had raised the pitch on caste censuses ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls. The timing of the announcements punctures the main plank of the Congress, and takes away the ownership of an issue repeatedly claimed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The BJP views this as a thought-out and calibrated response, a move that would snuff out the politics of the Opposition parties ahead of the Bihar elections. It could steal the thunder from the opposition, which is planning to make the caste census a key issue in Bihar elections.
Sources in the BJP view this as a strategic move to force the BJP to adapt to change realities and maximize political gains. The BJP shifted gears soon enough, pushed ahead with social engineering, roping in OBC leaders like Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti, both OBC Lodhs. Over the next decade, a fresh OBC leadership rung emerged in key BJP states, including Modi in Gujarat, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP, and Sushil Modi in Bihar.
The rise of Modi to power at the Centre made the BJP shed its image of a Bania-Brahmin party, and the Opposition decided to revive the Mandal discourse in 2023, with the Congress bringing to spotlight its demand for a caste census and larger representation of OBCs, SCs, and STs. The Congress had not adapted well to the Mandal wave, losing out in UP and Bihar, and had tried to make up for the delay when Arjun Singh as HRD minister announced Mandal 2, the extension of OBC quotas to higher educational institutions.
In one stroke today, the BJP has taken the sting out of the opposition charge, and made it clear to the OBCs that it cares for their issues. The BJP has also ended up undoing the north-south divide that the INDIA-constituent DMK was trying to whip up sentiments by making delimitation a key political rallying point. Once the caste census is done, and numbers are compared with the last caste census of 1931, it will be found that OBC populations in states like UP and Bihar have grown by leaps and bounds, but representation has not kept pace with these. This will change the tone and tenor of the debate on delimitation, making it not merely a concern of southern states but also of OBCs in populous northern states.
However, the RSS had expressed support for a caste census in September 2024, while cautioning that it should not be used as a political tool. The RSS thinks that for all welfare activities, particularly those targeting such communities or castes which are lagging behind, if sometimes the government needs the numbers, it is a well-established practice. Earlier also, it (the government) has taken (such data), and so it can do it again. But it should be done only for the welfare of those communities and castes. It should not be used as a political tool for elections. So we put this forth with a line of caution for everyone, RSS publicity in-charge Sunil Ambekar had said at a press conference.
Reluctance to give away the entire agenda of caste and caste census to the opposition, repeated demands from the smaller allies, and the upcoming Bihar elections seem to have prompted the BJP-led Union Government to announce the enumeration of castes along with the next census, whenever it happens.
Reference : https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/caste-census-bjp-adapting-puncturing-opposition-politics-ready-for-numbers-9975318/
