The political battle over India’s delayed census reignited Monday with Janata Dal (United) accusing the Congress of past failures in releasing key census data, after Congress leader Sonia Gandhi demanded its immediate completion in the House.
JD (U) leader Rajeev Ranjan Prasad dismissed Gandhi’s concerns, asserting that the Centre was already working on conducting a fresh census.
“Efforts are on. Once a decision is taken, it will be informed. Sonia ji need not worry about it,” Prasad said to the PTI.
Taking a dig at the Congress, he added, “They had the opportunity. The very people they now claim to worry about were left in the dark. The 2011 caste census was completed, but its findings were never made public. That was a chance to shape policy, and they squandered it.”
Prasad also pointed out that even three years after the census, the UPA government had failed to act on it. “This is political double-speak. But the people understand everything,” he said.
Sonia Gandhi, in her maiden Zero Hour intervention in the Rajya Sabha, warned that nearly 14 crore Indians were being excluded from the National Food Security Act (NFSA) because the government was still using 2011 census data.
“The population has increased significantly since then, but the number of beneficiaries has remained the same. The government’s delay in conducting the census is hurting millions,” she said.
On Monday, Bhartiya Rashtra Samithi leader K. Kavitha also brought back the controversy over the caste census recently completed by the Congress government in Telangana.
She accused the Congress of misleading the public on the Other Backward Caste census.
“Congress claims they have conducted the caste census and are promising 42 per cent reservations for OBCs in Telangana. Unfortunately, this is far from reality. The data has discrepancies, and several organisations campaigning for this cause have expressed concerns,” she told ANI.
She demanded that the Congress reconduct the survey and introduce a bill ensuring 42 per cent reservations for OBCs. “BRS will support it unequivocally,” she added.
K.Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2024 by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case connected to the alleged Delhi liquor scam.
The Congress government in Telangana tabled a socio-economic caste survey in the Assembly on February 4. The report ignited a controversy in the state.
Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been demanding a nationwide caste census for the past few years. Last week iterated his demand that Congress will conduct a nation-wide caste census and increase the cap on reservation if it comes to power.
Beyond the political back-and-forth, the delay in the census is part of a broader trend of key government data remaining unreported.
According to an analysis by Indiaspend, Consumer Expenditure Survey was scrapped after showing a decline in consumption, and several other crucial datasets—ranging from Crime in India and Accidental Deaths & Suicides to Road Accidents and Prison Statistics—remain unpublished.
And at least nine Union ministries have also failed to release their annual reports for several years.
Critics argue that the government was withholding politically sensitive information, a charge that has only intensified with the delay in the census.
The census, conducted every ten years, is a fundamental exercise that helps in policy decisions, welfare schemes, economic planning, and academic research and news reports, based on data.
