Overview
- Congress intensified public criticism on Wednesday, with spokesman Jairam Ramesh calling the caste question a “very serious flaw” and saying the 2027 census has been “totally perverted.”
- Party leaders say the current form lets enumerators record free-text caste names instead of selecting from a controlled list, which they warn will create multiple spellings and separate entries for the same community.
- The Congress has asked for the questionnaire to be scrapped and a fresh version built from a certified caste list, citing state surveys in Telangana and Bihar as working models and demanding consultations with parties and experts.
- Former census officials cited in media reports warned that advancing enumeration in four poll-bound states and adding new questions could lower data quality and raise risks of linking census records with the National Population Register or a citizenship register.
- The party says it has received no reply to a joint August 20 letter from Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, and the dispute now threatens the reliability of caste data used to allocate reservations and social benefits.