Overview
- Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was publicised on Tuesday, August 25, calling for the existing caste-census questionnaire to be withdrawn.
- The letter objects to an open-ended question that lets respondents type caste names, saying the approach will record many regional spellings and sub-caste names separately and could split single communities into thousands of entries.
- Kharge and Rahul propose replacing open text with a verified drop-down list compiled from government OBC lists, the Anthropological Survey and the Bihar 2022 and Telangana 2024 caste-survey lists that they attached to the letter.
- They warned that the current form does not include the phrase 'backward class' and said unreliable counts would undermine planning for education, jobs and welfare that affect OBCs and other marginalised groups.
- Partial enumeration has begun in select Himalayan and hill-state areas but the nationwide population count is scheduled for February 2027, so the Congress has asked for urgent consultation with parties and experts before the main rollout.