The term “Caste Census” gained prominence in India’s political discourse lately, largely due to the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi’s relentless push to weaponise it from every platform, as if the future of the nation’s development depends solely on its outcomes. Far from being a sincere exercise in social justice, the Congress has exposed its deep-rooted obsession with identity politics, where dividing communities along caste and religious lines for electoral gains consistently takes precedence over genuine governance. In stark contrast, the development model pursued by the BJP and the NDA over the past decade offers a more progressive and inclusive vision, one that focuses on infrastructure, economic growth, and people’s welfare without resorting to the dangerous game of caste arithmetic.
Ironically, the very Congress which now claims to be the torchbearer of the caste census remained conspicuously silent when it had the opportunity to act on it during its previous tenure in Karnataka. The so-called ‘Caste Census,’ formally known as the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey, was conducted way back in 2015 under the leadership of the Kanthraj Commission, covering 1.35 crore households, approximately 95 percent of the state’s population. Yet, despite the completion of this massive exercise, Congress government, including Siddaramaiah’s earlier tenure, deliberately buried the report, fearing the political fallout. The same party, which today positions the caste census as the panacea for all ills, failed to implement or publish its own report when it was politically inconvenient.
The 2024 revival of this contentious survey, led by the K. Jayaprakash Hegde Commission, has done little but stir a fresh wave of political opportunism, public dissatisfaction, and caste-based divisions, hallmarks of the Congress playbook.
Congress’s divide and rule politics
The Congress party shamelessly made the caste census a centrepiece of its 2023 Assembly election manifesto, promising to release the findings if voted to power. True to its word, but perhaps not to its conscience, the Siddaramaiah-led government selectively publicised parts of the report, conveniently releasing only the population data and reservation recommendations while withholding crucial socio-economic indicators.
As per the report, the reservation cap for the OBC community has been suggested to be increased to 51 percent which takes the overall reservation grid of the state to 85 percent, breaching the Supreme Court ceiling on reservation of 50 percent. All these recommendations of the report led to intense criticism and backlash from the public and political domain, thus pressurising the state cabinet to withdraw the report.
As per the latest developments, the cabinet is yet to notify the commencement of fresh round of comprehensive caste survey.
The way this so-called data is being touted as the basis for policy-making raises serious questions. Instead of focusing on empowering individuals through education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure, Congress seeks to push India back into caste silos where every welfare decision is dictated not by merit or need but by identity. The real aim is clear: manipulate vote banks, craft caste coalitions, and consolidate political power, classic Congress tactics.
The numbers game
The survey claims that a staggering 70 percent of Karnataka’s population belongs to the “backward” category. Muslims emerge as the largest backward group with 12.58 percent of the population, followed by Lingayats (11 percent) and Vokkaligas (10.29 percent). Scheduled Castes make up 18.2 percent and Scheduled Tribes 7.1 percent. The so-called general category, including Brahmins and Vaishyas stands at just 4.9 percent.
The report recommends raising the backward class reservation from 32 percent to a whopping 51 percent, pushing Karnataka’s overall reservation ceiling to 85 percent, a blatant violation of the Supreme Court’s 50 percent cap. It even suggests reclassifying communities like the Kurubas, incidentally the caste to which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself belongs into a ‘most backward’ category, raising legitimate concerns about the manipulation of data for personal political gain.
Unsurprisingly, dominant communities like the Vokkaligas and Lingayats have flatly rejected the findings, calling them “unscientific” and “manipulated.” They point out the glaring discrepancies: previous reports put their populations much higher (Vokkaligas at 12-14 percent and Lingayats at 17-22 percent). Many areas were allegedly undercounted, and large sections of the population were ignored, making the entire exercise a farce. The Congress government, instead of accepting these legitimate criticisms, continues to push forward its divisive agenda.
The Kuruba factor
The most glaring example of political misuse is the elevation of Siddaramaiah’s own Kuruba community into the ‘most backward’ bracket, directly aimed at consolidating his vote bank while undermining competing caste groups within his own party and the opposition. This is nothing short of a brazen attempt to use government machinery for personal political gain, a hallmark of Congress-style governance.
The caste census, rather than serving its supposed purpose of social justice, has become a tool for Siddaramaiah to sideline other influential ministers and create a power monopoly within the Congress party by pandering to his own caste.
Ignoring the marginalised
While Congress claims to stand for the marginalised, the report itself exposes the party’s selective concern. Nearly 50 nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, the most impoverished and neglected have shockingly been stripped of exemptions from the creamy layer, despite their literacy rates being abysmally low. Such recommendations reek of political selectivity and reveal how the Congress’s so-called social justice is nothing but a hollow narrative.
Breaching the Supreme Court ceiling
By proposing to increase OBC reservation to 51 percent which would push the total reservations to 85 percent the Congress government is willfully ignoring the Supreme Court-mandated ceiling. This is not just a policy misstep; it is a dangerous constitutional violation that could plunge the state into legal battles and social unrest. But for Congress, vote banks matter more than the Constitution.
Hypocrisy of the Congress
It is important to remember that this is the same Congress which sat on the caste census for almost a decade. It neither released the report nor showed any interest in using the findings for policy-making until it became politically expedient. The sudden urgency shown by Siddaramaiah is nothing more than an opportunistic manoeuvre designed to polarise the electorate ahead of future elections.
The Congress leadership is under pressure to act since the Central Government, led by the BJP, has taken a balanced approach to population and socio-economic data collection through the national decennial census. Meanwhile, Congress-ruled or opposition-leaning states like Bihar and Telangana have jumped on the caste census bandwagon in hopes of creating new vote banks. Karnataka’s Congress government is clearly following suit.
The caste census
Conducting a caste census is not inherently wrong but doing it hastily, without accuracy, with outdated data, and with political motivations will only deepen societal divides. The Congress has once again demonstrated its inability to rise above petty identity politics. Instead of focusing on infrastructure, employment, education, and empowerment, it seeks to turn Karnataka into a battlefield of caste groups where identity trumps merit and social divisions are deepened.
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