Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh claimed that the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A, saying the caste census results will not be available for a few years, overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months.
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Article 334-A includes the provision that reservation of seats for women would take effect following an exercise of census and delimitation.
“It is clear that the Modi government wants to put the caste census in cold storage,” Ramesh said on X.
There was no immediate response from the government on the Congress’ claims.
Ramesh pointed out that on July 20, 2021, the government answered a question in Lok Sabha stating that it decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in Census.On September 21, 2021, the Modi government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that it has taken a conscious policy decision not to conduct a caste census, Ramesh said.
“On April 28, 2024 in a television interview, the Prime Minister accused the Congress of having an urban naxal mindset for championing the cause of a caste census,” the Congress leader said.
On April 30, 2025, as the country was still in shock after the Pahalgam terror attack that occurred a few days earlier, the Modi government suddenly announced that the caste census would be conducted as a part of the upcoming census, he said.
In a widely-reported press conference on March 30, 2026, the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner said most of the results of the ongoing Census 2027 would be available in 2027 itself since the entire Census is being conducted digitally, Ramesh pointed out.
“But now the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A saying that the caste census results will not be available for a few years – overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months,” he said.
The prime minister is, as usual, “misleading” the country and engaging in massive deception, Ramesh said.
“He now wants to amend what the Parliament had unanimously passed in September 2023. The hidden agenda is simply not to have the caste census,” the Congress general secretary said.
The Congress’ attack on the government comes days ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament, during which the government is set to bring bills to implement the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women.
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The Congress has accused the Modi government of playing politics in the name of women’s reservation law and asserted that the proposed delimitation exercise linked to it was “not constitutional” and could have “grave consequences” that warrant thorough deliberation after the ongoing assembly polls.
At a Congress Working Committee meeting, it was decided that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would call a meeting of top leaders of all opposition parties, most likely on April 15, to discuss and formulate a joint strategy for the “special session” of Parliament from April 16 to 18.
