There is a growing resonance for the demand for caste-based census in the country to fine-tune the idea of social justice. This comes at a time when jobs and economic opportunities for the disadvantaged sections have been shrinking and the social disparities widening. The latest to join the chorus is Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who, during the election campaign in Karnataka, advocated taking a national census based on caste and removal of the 50 percent cap on reservations for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (OBC). The idea has already been mooted by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has been at the forefront of espousing the cause and had even got the assembly to pass a resolution, urging the Centre to include caste-based enumeration in the census work. The renewed focus and commitment to social justice must serve as glue for the opposition unity to take on the BJP-led NDA in the next general elections.
More recently, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin organised a national conference of the All India Federation for Social Justice, in which several non-BJP parties participated. There is a need for deploying Mandal as a political tool to blunt the campaign of religious polarisation being pushed by the BJP ahead of the polls. By trying to lure certain sections of the OBCs and reaching out to Pasmanda, a backward community among Muslims, the saffron party is trying to co-opt Mandal and blend it with Mandir politics to gain electoral mileage. There is a strong case for conducting a national caste census to identify socially, economically, and educationally backward communities and increase reservations proportionate to their population. Without reliable data, no welfare programme can be effective.