India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has supported caste census for the first time. With this support, RSS surprised the opposition parties. RSS openly expressed its opinion on the question of counting the number of castes. It said that the Sangh considers caste census to be necessary. In the three-day coordination meeting of RSS held in Palakkad, Kerala, there was a lot of discussion on this issue and it was decided that RSS will support caste census. RSS Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar said that before making plans for those castes or classes which have lagged behind in the process of development, it is important for the government to have information about the number of such classes, hence RSS is in favor of caste census.
However, Sunil Ambekar also put a condition in this. He said that caste census should be done, but there should be no politics on it because this is an issue of social equality, it should not be used to increase distances in the society. BJP President J.P. Nadda was also present in the RSS meeting in which caste census was discussed, but now it is likely that the Modi government will soon decide about caste census. However, what will be its form? Will its data be made public or not? These questions still remain.
What will leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, who are making the demand for caste census a political issue, do now? RSS national publicity chief Sunil Ambekar has said that the Sangh believes that if the government wants to make some plans for the classes left behind in the mainstream of development, then the number of these classes should be known for this. Therefore, caste census is necessary but there should be no politics on its data. This is not a political issue, it is a social issue. It should not be used politically, but how will caste census be prevented from becoming a political issue? Sunil Ambekar did not tell this.
This question arises because caste census has already become a political issue. The opposition raised it loudly in the Lok Sabha elections. It started from Bihar where Tejashwi Yadav repeatedly alleged that when he was in the government, he got caste census done in the state and forced Nitish Kumar to increase reservation on the basis of numbers, but since Nitish Kumar went with BJP, this matter got stuck. As soon as RSS spoke about supporting caste census, Tejashwi Yadav first said that the way Lalu Yadav created awareness among the backward castes, the result of that is that now everyone has to change their stand. Tejashwi said that RSS and BJP are against reservation, these people want to change the Constitution, so their words are not believed because these people say something and do something else. It is difficult to find out their hidden agenda. Now from September 10, Tejashwi Yadav is going to take out Aabhar Yatra in Bihar in which he plans to corner BJP and JDU on this issue.
After the RSS opinion came out, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said that everyone will develop only through caste census but BJP does not want to give reservation to the deprived section of the society. Reacting to Sunil Ambekar’s statement, Congress said on social media that saying that caste census can threaten the unity and integrity of the society is an open opposition to the demand for caste census. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge asked, “RSS should clearly tell the country whether it is in favor of caste census or against it? Does the Sangh Parivar, which is in favor of Manusmriti instead of the Constitution of the country, care about the participation of Dalits, tribals, backward classes and poor-deprived society or not?”
RSS has taken the same stand as Chirag Paswan’s party that caste census should be done but its data should not be released. The data should remain with the government only so that it is easy to make plans for those castes which have lagged behind in the process of development or who have not yet got the benefit of reservation. Be it Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav or Rahul Gandhi, all the leaders argue that caste census is necessary so that the social and economic condition of all castes can be ascertained and decisions can be made on that basis. But when RSS said the same thing, it became anti-reservation. The reality is that the strategy of the leaders of the opposition parties is very clear. They will first demand caste census, then there will be a demand to make the data public, then they will raise the slogan “Jiski jitni sankti bhaari, uski utni hazaar”, will demand to increase the limit of reservation, Tamil Nadu reservation will be cited. Overall, the intention is to shine their politics. It is about vote bank. That is why when RSS said that caste census should be done, but there should be no politics on it, then the leaders of all the opposition parties demanding caste census got angry. Because by taking such a stand the Sangh exposed their strategy. (Rajat Sharma)
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