The declaration of results of classes 10 and 12 by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) by tagging the successful candidates in various 'caste-based' categories has triggered a row.
Hitting out at the ruling BJP over the development, the Congress said the move amounted to dividing the state on "caste lines".
The education board, however, said there was no caste-wise segregation of students in the results declared on May 14, and that it was just a format of compiling the data.
In the official result kit handed to the media, the numbers of successful students have been summed up in four categories - General, OBC (Other Backward Classes), SC (Scheduled Caste) and ST (Scheduled Tribe).
MP Congress chief Kamal Nath said it showed the BJP's "low mentality".
"The BJP is dividing the state on caste-lines. After inscribing SC/ST in Dhar, now they have announced the high school results on the basis of caste. It is a reflection of BJP's low mentality," he said in a tweet.
Nath was referring to the Dhar incident last month in which castes were labelled on the chests of police constable recruits during a medical examination.
Meanwhile, MPBSE chairman S R Mohanty refuted the Congress' allegations saying it was a "wrong news".
"It is a data...that has been culled out. Out of five lakh people, let us say who have passed...so many children are OBC, so many children are SC...now that is data. It is not the results. Everybody publishes data...CBSE does that," he argued.
"All boards declare that out of, let us say how many people passed in Class 10 and 12...so many were SC and so many were ST, so many were OBC and so many were general. So, how is that caste-wise segregation?" he asked.
Mohanty stated that the board does not publish the caste of students in their mark sheets.
"Our mark sheets have not even been printed so far. So where is the segregation? This is only the data that has been culled out from overall...," he said.
Pointing out that data is taken out in this manner the world over, he said, "No difference has been made...no innovations have been done, no changes have been made. This is a system that is going on in all states...CBSE, UPSC also."
However, MP congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said dividing students on caste lines was "unacceptable".
"The BJP and the RSS are dividing the society. They are black Englishmen of Independent India", he alleged, adding that the party was planning to stage protests over the issue in the state.
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