Rush Hour: Caste enumeration in next Census, Hindu monk gets bail in Bangladesh and more

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The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs approved the enumeration of caste in the next census. The Union government, however, did not announce when the decennial exercise would take place.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the census came under the Centre’s purview and the exercises some states had conducted to enumerate castes were surveys. Some states have conducted such surveys “purely from a political angle in a non-transparent way”, he said, adding that the exercises had “created doubts”.

The Opposition has been demanding a nationwide caste census. The proponents of such an exercise argue that it will help identify the true population of the country’s Other Backward Classes and other castes, in turn paving the way for policies such as expanded quotas.

Vaishnaw alleged that the Congress and its allies had used their demand for a caste census “only as a political tool”. Read on.

A court in Bangladesh has granted bail to Hindu religious leader Chinmoy Krishna Das in a sedition case. Das, who has been in jail since November, was arrested for allegedly disrespecting the national flag during a rally in Chittagong.

A spokesperson for the Sammilito...

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