Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning the methodology proposed for recording caste details in the 2027 Census. The two leaders have objected to the absence of a separate Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in the questionnaire and argued that the current system could fail to accurately capture the size of India's OBC population.

In their letter, Kharge and Gandhi argued that allowing respondents to enter caste names in an open-ended format could create serious problems in compiling the data. They pointed out that the same caste may be known by different names, sub-castes and regional or linguistic variations across the country. According to the Congress leaders, recording each response separately could fragment members of the same caste into numerous entries and make the resulting dataset difficult to use accurately.

The two leaders demanded that the government withdraw the existing caste census questionnaire and prepare a new one after consultations with political parties, experts and the public. They proposed introducing a standardised "drop-down" list of castes to ensure that communities are recorded consistently across regions. They argued that such a list could be prepared using existing government records, including lists of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, along with information available from the Anthropological Survey of India.

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Kharge shared the letter on social media and stressed that conducting a caste census would only be meaningful if the exercise was carried out correctly. The Congress leaders also attached caste lists used in surveys conducted in Telangana and Bihar, arguing that these exercises demonstrated how standardised caste classifications could be implemented. They maintained that a consistent methodology would help prevent the same communities from being recorded under multiple names.

The issue comes after the Centre released a list of 40 questions for the 2027 Census around two weeks ago. The tenth question relates to caste and provides a drop-down format for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while an open-ended format has been proposed for other caste groups. The Congress has demanded that a similar standardised list be introduced for OBC communities to improve the accuracy and consistency of the data.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, while releasing the letter at a press conference, accused the Centre of lacking a genuine intention to conduct a meaningful caste census and described the current process as deceptive. The controversy comes amid growing political debate over caste enumeration and representation. Rahul Gandhi had also recently urged OBC communities to press for their demands, arguing that stronger public mobilisation could compel the government to reconsider its approach.

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