Caste Census Format Is ‘Misleading’, Scrap Existing Questionnaire, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge Write to Modi

New Delhi: Leaders of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that they do not support the caste census being conducted in the present manner and demanded that the questionnaire being used be scrapped and a new one be used instead after consulting all political parties.

“We do not accept the caste census being conducted in the current manner. The government should scrap the existing questionnaire and formulate a new one after consulting political parties, experts and the general public; this would ensure that the true numbers of every caste and community are revealed, making the caste census accurate, meaningful and beneficial,” the letter said.

The letter comes after the caste enumeration to be conducted alongside the population census will use an open-ended format, with enumerators recording the caste stated by respondents rather than selecting from a prescribed list. This follows the Registrar General of India deciding against using a drop-down menu of castes, including lists drawn from existing Union and state classifications. Enumerators will instead record responses as stated and will not attempt to classify surnames, sub-castes or other responses into broader caste categories.

“Your government has opted for an open-ended question format to record caste details in the census, which is misleading. Under this method, whatever name an individual provides for their caste will be recorded as it is,” the letter said.

लोक सभा में नेता प्रतिपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi और मैंने प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी जी को संयुक्त पत्र लिखकर जाति जनगणना की मौजूदा प्रक्रिया पर गंभीर चिंता जताई है।

Open-ended सवालों के जरिए जातियों की सही गिनती संभव नहीं है। एक ही जाति अलग-अलग नामों और उपजातियों में दर्ज हुई तो… pic.twitter.com/9bmRQrNiaT

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 25, 2026

The letter also said that if the population is not recorded correctly, analyses of the data will also be flawed and will also not reveal an accurate picture of the OBC population and its status.

“If the actual population of a community is not accurately recorded, any assessment of its status will also be flawed. This will disadvantage backward, extremely backward, and other marginalised communities, and will impact decisions related to education, employment, welfare schemes and social justice," they wrote.

The choice of an open-ended format is likely to produce problems similar to those encountered during the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census, when respondents were allowed to report their caste without being restricted to a standardised list. That exercise produced nearly 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, compared with 4,147 castes recorded in the last comprehensive caste census in 1931. The Union government subsequently withheld the raw caste data.

While the Congress leaders also enclosed copies of the two caste surveys conducted by Bihar and Telangana, addressing a press conference in Delhi, Congress MP and the party’s general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that the caste census announced by the Modi government is simply a “whitewash”.

Ramesh said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not support the caste census, he did a “U-turn” in April last year allowing it. Then, despite announcing that caste would be enumerated in the census, the questionnaire showed the prime minister had made another “U-turn”.

“Initially, Prime Minister Modi did not want to conduct a caste census for many years. Since the announcement of the census, he has been continuously doing U-turns. The caste census is just a whitewash,” he said.

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