Mumbai, May 1 -- Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi President Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday criticized the central government's stance on the caste census, calling it a diversionary tactic meant to deflect attention from pressing issues like the recent Pahalgam incident.

Speaking to ANI, Prakash Ambedkar questioned the timing and intent behind the announcement, alleging that it is aimed at suppressing growing demands for an OBC caste census and concealing what he termed the "economic genocide" of backward communities under upper-caste rule.

"On one hand, the Modi government files an affidavit in the Supreme Court that they cannot do a caste census. The second thing is that when no one was concerned about it, suddenly the census was announced. And t...