Asaduddin Owaisi asks Centre timeline on Census, calls to break 50% reservation cap

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi reiterated his strong demand for a nationwide caste census, calling it essential for social justice. He said that justice-based policies and the empowerment of backward communities — especially marginalised Muslims. Owaisi also urged the Narendra Modi-led NDA government to immediately bring a bill in Parliament to break the 50% limit on reservations. He also argued that caste-based deprivation cannot be addressed without rethinking existing legal limits.

Quoting Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram’s “Jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni hissedari (more the population, more the participation),” Owaisi said that implementing this idea is critical for an inclusive and truly representative democracy.

He said the Telangana assembly had already passed a resolution estimating that backward classes (BCs) constituted around 42% of the state’s population, and demanded proportional reservation.

“Once a caste census is done, no government will be



able to avoid exceeding the 50% cap,” Owaisi asserted, adding, “Affirmative action is meaningless without data.”

“Caste census will happen. But when will the Census happen? The government should answer that,” he said, adding: “We have already missed the timeline. We are still working on the 2011 census.”

Owaisi slammed the BJP’s outreach to Pasmanda Muslims as hypocritical, pointing out that while Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had extended reservations to backward Muslims under Category E (based on social and educational criteria), the BJP was opposing similar provisions elsewhere.

“In Hyderabad, the Prime Minister talks about Pasmanda Muslims, but his party gets a stomach ache when these very people are given reservation,” he said.

According to him, socio-educational backwardness, not religion, should be the basis for affirmative action. Owaisi cited Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, which enables the state to make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes.