Gandhi said he was "waiting with open arms".
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi asserted that the Congress will protect the Constitution and the reservation system at all costs and foil "conspiracies" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
With 12 MPs, the JD-U is the second biggest Bharatiya Janata Party ally after the TDP's 16, and leaders of the saffron party are in touch with allies over ministerial berths and other issues.
In an attempt to curb bogus voting and monitor the migration of voters across India, the Election Commission is planning to link the Census data of 2011 with its electoral rolls. The EC then plans to use global positioning system to automatically record the voters' migration or shifting of residence.Once the Census data is made available to the Election Commission, it will be clubbed with the electoral rolls. The GPS chip would be added to the electronic photo identity cards.
The bench noted even the high court has said in its judgement that 80 per cent of the work related to the survey has been completed.
Jan Adhikar Party leader Pappu Yadav joined the Congress on Wednesday and announced the merger of his outfit.
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
The plea filed by Nalanda resident Akhilesh Kumar submitted that in terms of the constitutional mandate, only the Union government is empowered to conduct a census.
He also said that the BJP's defeat in Faizabad seat of Ayodhya, where the Ram temple has been built, shows the wisdom of voters.
While 44-year-old Sunak was at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden on Sunday to promise to keep trying to "make the community proud", 61-year-old Starmer chose another north London Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury on Friday to reiterate his commitment to building a "strategic partnership with India".
Rediff.com tells you all that you need to know about the census
The socio-economic and caste census 2011 painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.
The Congress on Saturday resolved to make the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) an 'ideological and electoral success' to free the country from 'divisive politics' and ensure that people get a government that is sensitive and accountable.
'I realise that in some ways the Census is a peephole into a changing India. It's not just about transgenders or the disabled. This time marital status includes separate categories for divorced and separated. Mental illness has been separated from mental retardation. For the first time, the census taker is asking for the date of birth.'
On May 11 we launched our campaign against caste in census 2011 and responses from readers have been pouring in. While some merely clicked the 'I am against the caste census' button, others were more vocal. We present what our readers had to say.
Nitish Kumar wants to assure the BJP leadership that he will continue to be a part of the NDA. But he also wants to secure a larger number of seats for his party in the 2025 assembly elections in Bihar.
Sources within the INDIA bloc said appointing Nitish Kumar as convenor would lend credibility to the INDIA bloc's demand for conducting a nationwide caste census.
The caste census would be carried out by the government between June and September next year, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.
Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Tuesday said it has decided to include caste in census and the formality of endorsing it is expected at the next Cabinet meeting.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has opposed caste-based census, saying it would lead to caste based discrimination and strengthen casteist forces.
Separatist leader and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani has urged people to actively participate in the Census to put an end to the much-talked about demographic supremacy of a particular community, the daily Rising Kashmir has reported.
When asked about the Uniform Civil Code, Gandhi said he would comment on it only after he knows what is BJP's proposal.
Without revealing details of the proposed programmes, the leader of the Janata Dal-United, a constituent of INDIA, said that a decision in this regard was taken at the just concluded conclave of the opposition alliance in Mumbai.
Indian diaspora is the largest ethnic group in the UK and Hinduism with 1.5 per cent of the population is the third most popular religion in the country, the latest census indicated on Tuesday.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad demanded that the inclusion of caste in census be approved in the next Parliament session itself to benefit backward communities. "I request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure the inclusion of caste in census is cleared in the next Parliament session. If there is a delay, there will be a revolution at the national level by the people."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while being enumerated for Census 2011 last week, said the data from this massive exercise would be a treasure house of information to help the government plan development work.
The Madras high court on Thursday issued a fresh direction to the Centre to conduct caste-wise census in the country. Allowing a PIL by lawyer R Krishnamoorthy, a division bench on Wednesday directed the Census commissioner to take all steps to hold caste-wise enumeration. The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice T S Sivagnanam said the relief sought by the petitioner had already been answered in the affirmative by the court in an earlier verdict
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
Professor P Radhakrishnan is a social scientist talks about the dangers of including caste in the census.
'Bihar's caste survey has bolstered the Opposition parties, but one shouldn't forget that the BJP is also trying to present itself as a party that cares for the OBCs more than other parties,' points out Sanjay Kumar.
For the first time, census of tigers and other predators in Karnataka which begins on January 16, will cover the entire forest area going beyond the national parks and sanctuaries.
After successfully completing India's census project for 2001, CMC Ltd is all geared up to bid for similar projects across the world including in the US, and also plans to hire about 500 professionals in the current financial year.
The caste survey in Bihar was conducted in two rounds between January 7-21, and April 15-May 15.
Every young diploma and degree holder in the country will have the right to apprenticeships in the private and government sectors, he said.
Nearly 70 per cent of the country's population lives in rural areas where, for the first time since independence, the overall growth rate of population has sharply declined, according to the latest Census.
The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 per cent, up from 14.3 per cent in 2009.
'What happened to Andhra Pradesh? It is the perfect example of the transientness of Federal Units.' 'Federalism is a transient thing in this country.'
There's a lot of positive news in the population census findings, says C Chakravarty, consultant registrar general
"This is all about distraction, basic issue is of caste census and participation, in whose hands is the money of the country going. They (BJP) don't want to discuss this issue, they are afraid of it and run away from it," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.
The US needs to understand that it could potentially lose out on attracting several Netravalkars in the future if it curbs the influx of such industrious Indian immigrants, argues Vishal Menon.
