New Delhi : The Congress Working Committee passed a unanimous resolution for conducting the caste census across the country, which it said will set a new paradigm of development.
Addressing a press conference after a four-hour long CWC meeting presided over by the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here today, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, his party will force the Prime Minister to conduct the caste census or will make him get out of the way.
Gandhi said, all the four Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states, who were also present at the press conference, have decided to get caste census done in their respective states.
Describing ‘Caste Census’ as a very-very progressive and powerful step for the emancipation of the poor people in our country, the senior Congress leader said that it will set a new paradigm of development in the country as it will establish the actual status of the OBCs, Dalits, the Adivasis and the poor. He said, otherwise right now there are “two Indias”, one represented by people like Adani and the rest the others. He said, a new political and economic model will be built in the country based on the caste census.
To a question whether other INDIA bloc partners were also supporting the caste census, he said, by and large everybody was in agreement. ‘Most of the parties in the INDIA alliance are unanimous that the caste census should be implemented. There might be a few, who might have a slightly different position and that’s fine, we are quite flexible’, he added.
On the Prime Minister’s observation about giving proportionate representation to people according to their population, Mr Gandhi maintained that he (the PM) was used to resorting to distracting the issues and he was doing precisely the same thing. “The Prime Minister is making unconnected statements. What the caste census has to do with representation of the south is very difficult to understand now”, he asked. He said that the PM will resort to such distracting tactics more and more in the coming days.
He said, out of four Congress Chief Ministers, three were OBCs, while out of ten BJP Chief Ministers only one was an OBC and even he will no more be the Chief Minister very soon, while referring to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, suggesting that the BJP was going to lose from there in the assembly elections scheduled for next month.
Responding to the charges of the Prime Minister that caste census would divide people, he retorted, how does it divide people? He said, it is about due participation of people in the government based on their numbers. He pointed out, of the 90 most powerful officers, only 3 were from among the OBCs.
Gandhi expressed confidence that the Congress party will win elections in all the five states for which dates were announced today. He said, there was an overwhelmingly positive atmosphere in favour of the Congress. Besides, he said, people were not liking the atmosphere of violence, hatred and fear created by the BJP across India. He said, while BJP preaches and spreads violence, hate and fear, Congress spreads love, respect and harmony.
Gandhi was accompanied by the Chief Ministers, Ashok Gehlot, Siddaramaiah, Bhupesh Baghel, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Party General Secretaries, K.C. Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh during the press conference.
