New Delhi:
At a time when the Cabinet has referred the issue of caste census to a Group of Ministers (GoM), Congress MP Ajay Maken has now written to about 70-odd young MPs across party lines asking for an all-inclusive agenda on the issue.
In his letter to young MPs, Maken said, "Caste census will institutionalise caste rather than development as the national political agenda change."
Maken has hinted in the letter that the caste census is divisive.
"Regression into realm of caste being the political agenda will be detrimental to the country change," he writes.
The GoM is likely to be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The GoM panel has no time frame, but importantly, its decision will go back to the Cabinet.
Several political parties have made a pitch for conducting a caste-based census, prominent among them the Yadav troika of Mulayam, Lalu and Sharad.
Their parties - the Samajwadi Party, RJD and JD(U) - have been strongly demanding the inclusion of caste in the census exercise.
Those opposed to a caste-based census say that it is a throwback to the medieval times and the census should be looking at the future and not the past.