Nagpur: The BJP should clarify if it wants to caste to be included in the census, said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Baburao Vaidya on Sunday.
"The BJP is still undecided. Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Opposition Leader in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and L K Advani should come out with a statement on the caste-based census issue," Vaidya wrote in his weekly column in the Marathi daily Tarun Bharat.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari should hold a meeting of the party’s national executive to take a decision. The RSS is against caste based census but "the BJP is free to decide and not necessarily toe the RSS line. This will indeed help clear the misconception that BJP's affairs are controlled from the RSS headquarters."
The BJP has kept silent but senior party leader and deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde has supported demands for a caste-based census, said Vaidya.
"Munde struck cordial relationship with Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal recently on the issue of caste-based census even before it came in the Lok Sabha and got a tremendous support from Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav,” he said.
"Other Backward Classes (OBC) is not a particular community but a cluster of communities and that is demanding inclusion (of caste) in census. The paramount question is should Munde's stance be taken as an official party line?," Vaidya wrote in the column.
He claimed even the Congress was not united on the issue. "While Law Minister Veerappa Moily is in favour of caste based census, Home Minister P Chidambaram is against it and has cited some operational difficulties," he said.
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