Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala has said that ‘the DNA of BJP is anti-caste census’. Addressing journalists in Patna on Monday, he alleged that the BJP and the RSS have vehemently opposed caste census from the very beginning — from public forums to the Supreme Court.

He said that the BJP was also against the Mandal Commission and asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘Bantenge to katenge’ was against caste census.

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The Congress leader said, “The issue of caste census raised by the Congress party in every assembly and Lok Sabha unnerved PM Modi so much that he first insulted those demanding caste census by calling them ‘Urban Naxals’ and then gave the slogan ‘Bantenge to katenge’ in order to oppose the demand of caste census.”

He said that the caste census is both the “need of the hour” and the “determining instrument of social justice”. The catchphrase of the poor and the working class, ‘‘jitanee aabaadee – utanee hissedaaree’’ is not mere empty slogans but instruments of true social justice. The time of the caste census, a proclamation of social change and equality, has come.

He said that the Congress and caste census are two sides of the same coin. Social justice through ‘caste census’ has been the crux of the Congress party’s ideological fight for over a decade.

Surjewala said, “On 19 May, 2011, the Congress-led UPA government had decided to conduct a caste census. Its report was presented on 3 July, 2015. But, the data of this caste census was not released by the Modi Government. Since then, the Congress party has been struggling determinedly for conducting caste census and start a new era of social justice.”

He expressed doubts over the government’s intention. “The Modi government has not yet announced the date of commencement and completion of the Caste Census. This points towards the cunningness and conspiracy of the government, which may derail the caste census after the Bihar assembly elections.”