NEW DELHI:
Congress on Thursday stepped up its criticism of the Centre’s proposed Census 2027, with party general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh alleging that the exercise had become “totally perverted” and that its intent was “very dubious”.
Ramesh made the remarks in response to a media report that the advancement of the Population Enumeration phase of Census 2027 in four poll-bound States, along with the introduction of several new questions, had raised concerns among some former Census officials about the quality of data and possible links between the Census, the National Population Register and, ultimately, the National Register of Citizens.
Ramesh alleged that some of the questions were “worthless”, “superfluous” or “diabolical”. He specifically questioned the proposed caste-related question and the collection of information such as the names, religion and place of birth of a person’s parents.
The Congress has also criticised the government’s decision to use open-ended questions rather than a drop-down list in the caste census format. The party has described this as a “very serious flaw” and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted the process to fail.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had jointly written to Modi on August 20, raising objections to the caste census process and demanding that it be conducted in what the party considers an appropriate manner.
The allegations and objections are those raised by the Congress and its leaders and do not represent an independent assessment of the Census exercise.