Census bias on OBCs exposed: Manickam Tagore

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Manickam Tagore on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of deliberately weakening the caste census by adopting an open-ended method for collecting OBC caste details, alleging that the move could lead to inaccurate data and undermine social justice and reservation rights.

Tagore said the Centre's reluctance to release caste-wise census data and details of corporate loan write-offs exposed what he termed its class and caste bias. He questioned why OBC caste details were being collected through an open-ended format when clear lists were available for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

He pointed out that the Union government's OBC list includes more than 220 communities in Tamil Nadu and argued that collecting details without a predefined list could lead to spelling variations and classification errors. With around 34 lakh enumerators involved in the census exercise, he said the absence of a standardised list could compromise data accuracy.

Tagore alleged that inaccurate OBC data could eventually be used to undermine reservation benefits, including Tamil Nadu's 69 per cent reservation system. He also accused the RSS of opposing social justice and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were implementing its agenda.

The TNCC president announced a statewide campaign to create awareness about the issue, coordinated by TNCC OBC wing president TA Naveen. The campaign will begin in Chennai on September 17 under Tagore's leadership and will be inaugurated by Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani.

Tagore said the campaign will cover 10 cities and the Congress would demonstrate the problems associated with the open-ended method and advocate a verified dropdown system for collecting caste data.