Massive blow to Rahul Gandhi: Congress' Anand Sharma opposes caste census, says it is 'disrespect to Indira Gandhi's legacy'

In a massive blow to Rahul Gandhi, veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma has opposed caste-based census, saying the issue is 'disrespect for Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's legacy'. Sharma is also a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of Congress. 

Rahul Gandhi has made caste census a central issue in the upcoming Lok Sabah elections and has promised that, if elected, the INDIA alliance government will conduct this exercise across the country.  

In a three-page letter dated 19 March to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharma said though caste is a reality of Indian society, Congress has never engaged in nor endorsed identity politics. "That is detrimental to democracy in a society with a rich diversity or region, religion, caste, and ethnicity," he said. 

The veteran Congress leader recalled Indira Gandhi's clarion call of 1980: "Na jaat par na paat par, Mohar lagegi Haath par". After the Mandal riots, he said, Rajiv Gandhi, as a Leader of the Opposition, in his historic speech in Lok Sabha on September 6, 1990, said: "We have problems if caste is defined to enshrine casteism in our country...We have problems if casteism is going to be made a factor for parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies...The Congress cannot stand by and watch this nation being divided.

Anand Sharma, who served as Minister of Commerce and Industry from May 2009 to May 2014, said the departure from the party's historic position is a matter of concern for many Congressmen and women across the country. "It calls for reflection." 

"In my humble opinion, this will be misconstrued as disrespecting the legacy of Indira ji and Rajiv ji. Also by default, that will be an indictment of successive Congress governments and their work for empowerment of the disadvantaged sections."

The Congress leader further said that social and economic backwardness has always been the sole guiding criteria for affirmative action. He said the last census to enumerate caste differentiation was in 1931 during the British colonial regime.

"After Independence, a conscious policy decision was made by the Government not to canvas caste-related questions in the census, except for SCs and STs, which is collected by the States," he said, adding that all Census Commissioners, after independence, have recorded their reasons and disapproval of a National Caste Census, citing overlap, duplication, data lacking in accuracy and doubtful authenticity.  

Sharma said a caste census cannot be a panacea nor a solution for unemployment and prevailing inequalities. "A fundamental departure from time-honoured policy on this critical and sensitive subject has major long-term national implications."