New Delhi, July 13 -- a caste census not only risks diverting India away from development but could also undermine our foundational constitutional values. Instead of reducing the salience of caste in Indian society, it will reinforce it.

In so doing, it goes against B.R. Ambedkar's warning on day-zero of the Indian Republic: "The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of pai...