{
  "id": 1530798,
  "title": "OBC column missing from census questionnaire, says Congress",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/obc-column-missing-from-census-questionnaire-says-congress",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-17T17:30:17.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu",
    "slug": "the-hindu",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/obc-column-missing-from-census-questionnaire-says-congress/article71357658.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Congress party accused the Modi government on Monday (August 17, 2026) of intentionally omitting the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category from the census questionnaire. OBC department national chairman Anil Jaihind addressed a press conference at the party's office, stating that the OBC category was absent from the questionnaire released on August 14. Jaihind claimed that the exclusion was part of a \"deep conspiracy\" to hide the OBC population from official records and went against principles of social justice. He also highlighted the technical challenges posed by an \"open-ended\" caste question, which could lead to millions of entries for the same or related communities due to regional names, synonyms, and spelling variations. Citing Haryana as an example, he noted that the carpenter community is referred to by multiple names, such as Jangid, Jangra, Khati, Dhiman, and Vishwakarma. Jaihind estimated that enumerators might record up to 46 lakh different castes, suggesting that the government would misuse the extensive data to avoid conducting a scientific caste census. He praised Telangana's caste survey, which used a 54-question questionnaire with a list of 242 castes, and called for a scientific and transparent approach. He reminded that Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had been advocating for a caste census since 2023, and the government had announced the initiative in April 2025 following political pressure. The Congress pledged to continue its efforts to secure the rights of OBCs, Dalits, and other marginalized groups.",
  "summary": "Modi government deliberately excluded the category, it says",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}