Caste count: Maken ruffles Cong
Leaders Disapprove Of His Letter Asking Party MPs To Oppose Caste Census
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: Union Cabinet may have, for all practical purposes, decided
to include caste as an enumerating criterion in the ongoing census but
the issue continues to roil the Congress party.
The divide in the party, which found full reflection in the
deliberations of the Cabinet, is now out in the open, forcing the
leadership to frown upon the airing of differences in public.
Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi on Friday disapproved
of minister of state for home Ajay Maken's letter where he asked young
party MPs to oppose the revival of castebased count. "No one who is
sitting in responsible position in government should make such a
statement," Dwivedi told reporters. "He should have avoided writing
the letter," the party functionary said, stressing he had talked to
Maken and he also felt the same. Dwivedi that the views expressed by
Maken, who looks after the functioning of Registrar General of India —
the agency tasked with the conduct of census — were "personal".
Maken's argument that the restoration of caste-based census would
mark a "regression" and would result in party's development agenda
being trumped by caste only echoed the sentiments expressed in the
Cabinet by his senior colleagues — commerce minister Anand Sharma, HRD
minister Kapil Sibal, sports minister M S Gill and others.
Many of those who have not spoken out are also baffled by the
leadership's sudden acquiescence to the campaign for caste-based
census. Maken's pitch resonates well with many in the party also
because of the aggressive advocacy for caste-based enumeration by
party leaders like law minister Veerappa Moily. Moily who wrote to the
PM demanding the return of caste-based headcount and has led the fight
for it within the Cabinet. It is pointed out that the law minister has
regularly made public his views, and even referred to the divide
within the Cabinet, within hours of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
advice not to wash policy linen in public. Those sympathetic to Maken
point out that the leadership which promptly expressed its displeasure
of the minister's comment has preferred to wink at Moily running a
public campaign. Maken's views boil down to the argument that having
won a decisive mandate on the basis of a plank focused on development,
there was no need to agree to a scheme designed to ensure that caste
remains the chief political pivot. The middle class, has emerged as a
voting bloc big enough to take the party to another podium finish
without having to compete with caste-based formations.
BJP too divided
The divide in BJP on including caste in the census came out in the
open on Friday with former party president Murli Manohar Joshi saying
he did not favour such an exercise and that there were two schools of
thought in the party.
Despite the BJP supporting a caste enumeration in an important
debate in Lok Sabha during the monsoon session, Joshi went with the
stand taken by the RSS, and said the move would only prove to be
divisive and not help national unity. TNN
------------------------------------
----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ZESTCaste-digest@yahoogroups.com
ZESTCaste-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ZESTCaste-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
No comments:
Post a Comment