After the Union government announced on April 30 that it would conduct a caste enumeration while carrying out the population census, BJP leaders have hailed the move a “historic decision”. However, this stands diametrically opposite to how many in the party described the caste census when such an undertaking was demanded by opposition parties including the Congress, Samajvadi party and others.
In April 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the Congress’ demand for a caste census as an “urban naxal thought”. At the time, he also claimed that the Congress’ promise to carry out such a census in their 2024 general elections manifesto was a “threat to the right to personal property” and further alleged that it echoes Maoist ideology. Prior to this, in 2023, PM Modi had even said that he considers women, youth, farmers and the poor as the "biggest castes", the upliftment of whom is important for the country.
Barely a month before this announcement, on March 26, the BJP’s official X handle mocked Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, who has consistently demanded a nation-wide caste census. With a picture of Rahul, the post read, “I like to ask everyone’s caste, who am I?” The post also offensively described the Congress leader as a ‘jaati paglu’ (‘caste mad’).
BJP’s IT cell national convenor Amit Malviya, has on several occasions spoken against a caste census. In 2010, Malviya said, “Caste census can potentially unsettle existing social order. Society will be driven by proposed benefits rather than merit and hard work.”
With many pointing out his earlier posts, Malviya doubled down, accusing the Congress of failing to implement the census and claimed that the BJP had agreed to the move.
Again, only weeks before the Union government’s announcement, the Karnataka unit of the BJP on April 12, described the Congress-led state government’s Socio-economic and Education Survey (SES) report as a bid “to divide Hindus”.
However, reacting to the April 30 announcement, Karnataka BJP state president Vijayendra Yediyurappa called the Union government’s promised caste census a “landmark step towards equity and empowerment!”
Similarly, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Suriya, saying that he “welcomes the historic decision” of the Union government, added, “All the earlier attempts of caste surveys by various state governments were not only outside the purview of the Constitution’s mandate, but were merely politically expedient tools to aid political mobilisation and nothing more.”
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, while announcing the Union government caste census on April 30, also claimed that some states had conducted a caste census “only as a political tool”. So far, Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka are the only states to have conducted such censuses. Both Telangana and Karnataka are ruled by the Congress. The caste census in Bihar, conducted in 2023, was undertaken when the Janata Dal (United) had been in alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). It must be noted that Assembly elections are expected to be held in Bihar later this year.