Scrap Census format, include detailed list of castes: Congress

New Delhi: Leaders of Opposition in Parliament, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the questionnaire for the census, contending that the "open-ended question" on caste will result in inaccurate data, especially in the absence of specific questions on OBCs.

In a joint letter, the duo told the PM they "do not accept the caste census being conducted in the current manner" and urged him to formulate a new questionnaire after consulting stakeholders, including political parties and experts.

Proposing a solution, they suggested the questionnaire including a drop-down list of castes based on existing government lists such as those for socially and educationally backward classes and the list from the Anthropological Survey of India. They also forwarded to Modi the questionnaires followed in the Bihar and Telangana caste surveys as models for consideration.


Ironically, at a 2025 Patna conclave, Gandhi had dubbed the same 2022-23 Bihar caste survey as a "fake caste census, done to fool the people".

The Congress leaders maintained that social justice policies in India cannot be effectively implemented without accurate data.