Kharge Urges PM Modi To Adopt Telangana Caste Survey Model, Bats For Reservation In Private Educational Institutes

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (6 May), questioned the details of the caste survey, announced by the Union Government last week and urged him to follow the Telangana model.

Interestingly, instead of naming his own state Karnataka, which was the first to conduct a caste survey but its report was never made public, the Congress president cited the example of another Congress-ruled state Telangana, which recently became the first state to implement sub-categorisation within the Scheduled Castes (SC) as per the August 2024 Supreme Court order.

"The Union Home Ministry must draw upon the Telangana model—both the methodology adopted for finalising the questionnaire, as well the final set of questions asked," Kharge said, asserting the cruciality of the census questionnaire.

He also demanded the removal of the 'arbitrarily imposed 50 per cent ceiling on reservations' for SCs, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC) and advocated for reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs in private educational institutions as well.

Kharge requested PM Modi to have a dialogue with all political parties soon on the issue of the caste census so that it can be conducted in a 'comprehensive manner' to ensure social and economic justice and equality of status and opportunity.

Addressing apprehensions against the caste, he said, "Caste census like exercise gives the backward, the oppressed and the marginalised sections of our society, their rights cannot and should not be considered divisive in any way."

Kharge also targeted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for earlier attacking the Congress and its leadership for raising the caste census demand and then announcing it acknowledging 'the interests of deeper social justice and empowerment.'