Chennai, September 17 (Daily Kiran) : The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) will kick off a state-wide awareness campaign starting Thursday. The initiative aims to highlight perceived flaws in the central government’s proposed method for collecting caste data during the census.
According to the Congress party, the suggested approach to gather caste-based statistics is inadequate for accurately reflecting the social justice and real conditions of backward classes. To address this issue, the party plans to engage the public through awareness programs across the state.
TNCC President and Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore stated that the campaign will be conducted in ten major cities in Tamil Nadu through public meetings and dialogue sessions. The Congress opposes the central government’s open-ended questions for gathering caste information, advocating instead for a drop-down system based on pre-defined community lists. They believe this method will yield more reliable data for formulating social justice policies.
The campaign’s launch will feature AICC General Secretary and Tamil Nadu in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, along with K. Veeramani, President of the Dravida Kazhagam.
Manickam Tagore accused the BJP-led central government of attempting to obscure the actual population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), thereby denying these communities proper representation. He pointed out that the central government had previously postponed the caste census citing issues related to delimitation. Now, it proposes to collect caste data through open-ended questions, claiming that no comprehensive list of OBC communities is available.
Tagore argued that this is a deliberate strategy to deprive backward communities of their rightful share in political power, education, and employment. He questioned why an open-ended format is being proposed for OBCs when clear lists already exist for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The second phase of the census, which will gather caste-related information, is considered particularly significant due to its implications for reservation and welfare policies. Tagore emphasized that a pre-defined drop-down list would minimize errors, prevent duplication, and ensure more accurate categorization of communities.
Additionally, the Congress leader accused the central government of concealing information about corporate loan write-offs and defaulters. He claimed that, despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, public sector institutions like the Reserve Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have refused to disclose the names of corporate debtors who have not repaid their loans.
Tagore noted that only 28 percent of the ₹35,716 crore in write-offs has been recovered. Regarding the decision by left parties to contest the upcoming by-elections independently, he remarked that he could not comment on their strategy, but expressed surprise that parties that previously supported the government in the assembly have chosen to run separately now.
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