And who were the first to ask for data?

Kaka Kalelkar and B.P.Mandal. And who were these gentlemen? They headed the First and Second Backward Classes Commisions. Listen to what Kalelkar had to say:

"Before the disease of caste is destroyed all facts about it have to be noted and classified in a scientific manner as in a clinical record. To this end we suggest that the 1961 Census be remodelled and reorganised so as to secure the required information... If possible, Census should be carried out in 1957 instead of in 1961."

That was a recommendation of the Kalelkar Commission outlined in its 1955 report. Let's see what the much reviled B.P.Mandal did to acquire data:

'Advisor to the Human Resource Development ministry for this Supreme Court case, P S Krishnan, told The Indian Express today: “B P Mandal had himself written to three successive Home Ministers and had repeatedly requested them to conduct a caste-based Census. But he was refused saying that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, independent India’s first Home minister, had decided in 1950 that there will be no caste-based census from 1951 onwards, when the first census took place in Free India.[...] Krishnan said that Mandal wrote “three DO letters to three home ministers, namely H M Patel in 1978-79, Y B Chavan in 1979 and Gyani Zail Singh in 1980.”'

So, who's afraid of data? And who stopped its collection in the first place? Definitely not the OBCs. Check who were the Prime Ministers when Kalelkar and Mandal made their requests - they were definitely not OBCs. Check who are the sociologists who first opposed and still oppose caste censuses? Andre Beteille and Dipankar Gupta are some of the names that strike you immediately. Aren't these the wiseheads who incidentally also happen to oppose reservations for the OBCs?

Why are you afraid of data? This is one of those umpteen accusations that are hurled at OBCs. Note the insouciance, at best, and brazen shamelessness, at worst, of those who hurl that accusation. If a caste census was carried out in 1961, reservations for OBCs would have started then - on a more comprehensive basis, even in states where they already existed. And perhaps, there wouldn't be as many OBCs now.

Did the OBCs stop the caste censuses forty/fifty years ago so that they could 'assert backwardness and then to claim that we are more backward than you' today? One would have thought the babalog fighting for 'equality' were the only denizens of Delhi who were capable of thinking up such filmi plots and (lines)- but one should've known better. There is a lesson here for the OBCs - if you think things have changed over the last forty/fifty years, you'll remain backward. Forever.

They stopped the collection of data then, because they didn't want to divide the country along lines of caste, they ask for data now because they don't want to divide the country along lines of caste.