Tagore questioned the rationale behind the proposed format when established lists already exist for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
He alleged that the approach was intended to deny backward communities their rightful representation in political institutions, education and employment.
The second phase of the population census will include the collection of caste-related information. The exercise is expected to have significant implications for reservation, representation and the design of welfare programmes.
Tagore maintained that providing respondents with a predefined list of communities would improve classification and minimise the risk of the same caste being recorded under different names or spellings.
The Congress leader also criticised the Centre over the disclosure of information concerning corporate loan write-offs and wilful defaulters.
He alleged that public-sector institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, had declined to release the names of corporate borrowers who failed to repay loans despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2015.
Tagore claimed that only 28 per cent of the Rs 35,716 crore in written-off loans had been recovered.
Responding to the Left parties’ decision to contest the forthcoming by-elections independently, Tagore said he could not comment on their electoral strategy. He, however, expressed surprise that parties which had supported the government in the Assembly had decided to enter the contests separately.
With IANS inputs
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