PM and PMO quiet on caste census, while citizens wait and wonder

The Prime Minister, who was vocal in condemning the demand for a caste census until recently, has till Thursday afternoon (1 May) not explained why he took an U-turn on 30 April 2025.

He in fact had accused the opposition of committing a ‘sin’ by raising the demand, approximately a year ago. In an interview given to Network18 during the campaign for the Lok Sabha election in 2024, he had called the caste census a part of the agenda of "urban naxals", a term which is yet to be clearly defined by the law or the government.

BJP leaders had of course taken their cue from their great leader and commenced vociferous and vicious criticism of the idea of a caste census — it was dangerous, divisive and a pre-colonial British ploy to rule over the country, they screamed.

There was no caste, they argued, in Amrit Kaal.

A BJP spokesperson, Sudhangshu Trivedi, had gone further still and declared that Barhai (carpenter), Lohar (ironsmith) and Sunar (goldsmith) were not castes but merely traditional occupations.

A similar argument has been advanced by PM Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. He had famously stated that manual scavengers, almost exclusively Dalits, were not victims of the caste system but were doing God’s work, spinning Mahatma Gandhi’s coinage of 'Harijan' into a new narrative to describe them.

Others like the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had warned of designs to divide Hindus. Hhe had declared, "Batenge toh katenge (united we stand, but divided we fall — though literally, 'we'll be dead if we let ourselves be divided')." In turn, his rhetoric inspired the PM to declare, "Ek rahenge toh safe rahenge (we will remain safe as long as we stand together)." Both were referring to the alleged persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and warning about the dangerous consequences of a caste census.

What is curious is that PM Modi himself has flaunted his OBC identity more than once after becoming prime minister. The ruling BJP released the caste break-up of its union ministers to showcase how 'inclusive' the party is. Not too long ago, the BJP prided itself for its social engineering and credited the modern-day Chanakya Amit Shah for cleverly appropriating smaller castes. Visiting Dalit homes to eat became an opportunity to showcase the party’s warmth towards the community. More importantly, these occasions became photo ops to prove that Dalits were indeed Hindus and were not discriminated against in India.

It was a different matter that Dalit children were being beaten to death for drinking water in temples and Dalit grooms assaulted for riding a horse to weddings even in the PM’s home state of Gujarat.

The prime minister’s rhetoric actually became harsher after the caste survey conducted in Bihar in 2023.

“Since yesterday, Congress has started singing a new tune. Congress leaders say ‘higher the population, greater the representation’ (jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni hissedari). I say that the largest population in this country is that of the poor. Therefore, for me, the poor are the biggest [chunk of the] population and the welfare of the poor is my aim,” he asserted.

A few days later, he asserted, "They are trying to divide the Hindus. They are trying to divide the poor. They are trying to destroy the country."

Even in January 2025 the PM said, apparently alluding to the opposition, that “some people” were working to “weaken the social fabric” of the nation by trying to “spread poison in society in the name of caste”.

Modi also dubbed the Congress manifesto in 2024 — which promised a caste census and ‘to each according to their number’ — an 'urban naxal manifesto'.

Now, even as the government is yet to formally notify the caste census and furnish the details of how and when it shall be conducted, there are reports that budget allocations have not yet been made for a nation-wide census.

It may therefore be a lot of hot air — but analysts see the approval for a caste census as a cynical measure to divert attention from the Pahalgam terror attack and the Modi government’s inability to trace the terrorists.

There is also near-unanimity that it is designed to steal the opposition’s thunder and offer the caste census as a fait accompli to the voters in Bihar.

The PM will hopefully break his silence and come up with the justification for the U-turn. But when — that's the question.