Union minister exhorts young MPs to oppose caste census

Adding a new dimension to the raging debate on whether caste should be included in the census that is currently underway, Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Maken today wrote to the younger members of Parliament urging them to oppose the "regressive move".

Maken said the move was being pushed as part of a divisive agenda by some politicians looking for short-term political gain.

The Congress politician argued that the United Progressive Alliance had come to power on the agenda of development and any move to include caste in the census would be "disastrous" for politicians, particularly the younger ones who are still building their future.

In his letter, Maken said "young conscience-driven individuals" like him had served the people and thrived politically on the all-inclusive agenda of development.

Writing to the young MPs "as a colleague MP" rather than a minister, Maken said the younger lot will probably stay in politics and govern the country for at least the next 15-20 years.

Accordingly, he said, it was their responsibility to identify and establish the national political agenda for governance for the next few decades.

He said the core political ideology adopted by the country's founding fathers, subsequent statesmen at the helm of affairs, as also respective political parties, was that of development as the most important, if not the sole means, of achieving social, economic, and political justice.

Be it Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Ram Manohar Lohia, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, the goal was economic betterment, political empowerment and social justice to be achieved through
inclusive development, he wrote.

A caste count in the census was never advocated by any of them, least of all by Lohia, whose most famous quote remains "Jaat naa puchho sadhu ki..," Maken said.

Pointing out that the last decade had seen development and good governance rather than caste or community being mandated by people in elections across different states, Maken said that after a long time a pro-incumbency factor could be seen in the voting patterns instead of an anti-incumbency factor.

He feared that accepting caste as a parameter in the census would for at least the next 20 years institutionalise caste rather than development as the national political agenda.

Enumerating the fallout of the inclusion of caste in the census, he said it could give rise to demands from each and every section or caste or community to be recognised and enumerated as OBC (Other Backward Classes) to get benefits.

Another fallout, he said, could be proportional representation in jobs and the legislatures for all such castes which claim OBC status and somehow manage to get into the OBC list.

Proportional allocation of resources for OBCs, which would always be perceived to be unfulfilled as in the case of the SCs and scheduled tribes, could be another issue, he said.