‘What PM Modi says, does the opposite’: Congress on ‘no caste column in census notification’

The Opposition Congress Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the issue of caste census, saying there is no column for caste in the official Gazette notification.

“Now there is no column for caste in the census. What he (PM Modi) says does exactly the opposite. They (BJP) say something but do something else, and act without thinking before making decisions…,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said.

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His remarks came after Samajwadi Party President and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the census notification doesn’t include any column for caste, alleging that the proposed caste-based survey is yet another “Jumla” (gimmick) of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“There isn’t even a column for caste in the census notification—what will they count? A caste-based census is just another BJP gimmick. The BJP’s straightforward formula is: no counting, no demographic basis for proportional reservation or rights. Not conducting a caste-based census is a BJP conspiracy against PDA society,” Yadav wrote on X and shared a copy of the Gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday, January 22.

In the notification copy shared by Yadav, the ministry has advised officials involved in the Census 2027 to ask certain categories of questions.

Among the suggested questions, only one seeks information on whether the head of the family belongs to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and other categories. None of the questions proposed by the ministry directly ask respondents to specify their castes.

Responding to this, Yadav said, “Those who trusted the BJP today feel not just cheated but deeply humiliated. BJP workers and leaders who had been claiming until now that they would conduct a caste-based census can no longer show their faces in their communities. They are now forced to remove the BJP scarf from their necks and the BJP flags from their homes, shops, and vehicles.”

He said the PDA (a term he coined for pichhada or backward classes, Dalits and Alpsankhyaks or minorities) will have to fight its own battle for dignity, reservation, and rights.

Yadav also asserted that after facing opposition over the issue, the “deceitful” BJP may call it a typing mistake.

“The BJP has been so thoroughly exposed now that everyone knows what it will do after its nefarious intentions are uncovered. In fact, this isn’t BJP cunning—it’s BJP shamelessness,” he added. “Now, dictionaries should define the ‘promise-breaking’ BJP as ‘deception’.”