Caste census will help to improve opportunities for the needy, says Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarifies caste-based census aims to uplift less privileged, not for political gain.

The Centre has decided to hold a caste-based census not to gain political mileage, but to improve opportunities for the less privileged, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

She was speaking on the sidelines of an event to felicitate the newly selected civil service officers, organised by Shankar IAS Academy here. She said the DMK should not seek political mileage out of the census. Asked about the DMK and INDIA bloc claiming credit for the move, she said the DMK should not talk about caste when it professed samathuvam  (equality), adding the census would provide data necessary to create opportunities for the less privileged.

“Even today, I see name boards with caste names on streets in Tamil Nadu. It was in Tamil Nadu that in the name of community, sewage was added to drinking water. Such an act has not been played out even in the northern States that are being spoken of as backward,” she said.

To a question from the media about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s remarks that despite the Central government denying funds, the State government was managing on its own, Ms. Sitharaman said it was surprising that ruling DMK members thanked her in private messages for the funds the State had received, but postured otherwise in public. “I get private messages from the ruling party members — I don’t want to name them — thanking me for the funds. We have given funds under the MGNREGA. They thank me in private messages, saying the funds have been received. But publicly they posture as if the government had not received funds,” she said.

On Mr. Stalin’s criticism that the AIADMK-BJP was a corrupt coalition, Ms. Sitharaman asked which coalition’s Ministers were asked to step down by court. Two Ministers, one because of corruption charges and the other for some other reason, had to step down. “They had to step down. How can the respected Chief Minister speak of our coalition? In English, they say, ‘Who is quoting the Bible’, and the answer begins with S. I don’t want name it,” she said.

As for the accusation that the BJP government gave tax relief only to corporates, she asked for evidence. “If the country has the right policy, if there is a stable government, and if the tax policy is conducive to everyone, business will grow. Micro, small and medium enterprises are growing in Tamil Nadu. Did the State not take it up as a policy? For these baseless allegations, I appeal to you to ask them for evidence. Today, the Prime Minister commissioned the Vizhinjam Port in Kerala. The port has come up only because of Adani. It was the Congress that gave the project to Adani. The Congress’s ally is the DMK. Pose this question to the DMK. The project was [conceived] when Oommen  Chandy was Kerala’s Chief Minister. He invited Adani and gave the project to him without any tender,” she said.