Chhattisgarh: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government over the 'caste census' in poll-bound Chhattisgarh. The Wayanad MP who was addressing state government's 'Awas Nyay Sammelan' in Parsada (Sakri) village in Bilaspur promised to conduct a "caste census" if Congress elected to power stressing that only such an exercise would ensure "participation of OBCs, Dalits, tribals and women".
"Why is PM Modi scared of caste census?"
The 53-year-old leader also asked why the PM Modi-led government had not released the details of a 'caste census' conducted by the Congress (when it was in power) and sought to know if the PM was afraid of such an exercise. "Why is PM Modi scared of caste census? Why did they not release the caste census report conducted by Congress? Rahul Gandhi in Chhattisgarh," he said.
Gandhi during his address waved a remote control at the crowd and said the poor and needy benefited when the Congress presses it, while "Adani gets ports, airports and railway contracts" when the ruling BJP does the same. "The Congress had conducted a caste census that has the record of the population of every caste in the country. The Union government has this report but Modiji doesn't want to reveal it," he claimed.
Rahul Gandhi promises caste census
"Caste census has to be conducted if we want to give participation to Other Backward Classes, Dalits, tribals and women. If Modiji does not conduct a caste census, then when we are elected to power our first step will be to conduct a caste census to ensure OBC participation," Gandhi asserted.
Gandhi said the government is run by secretaries and cabinet secretaries and not MPs and MLAs, and pointed out that only three of the 90 secretaries in various Union government ministries are OBCs. These three persons control only 5 per cent of the country's budget, Gandhi said and questioned if India only had 5 per cent OBC population. Asserting that the caste census is the answer to such questions, Gandhi asked why Modi was scared of the enumeration exercise.
(with inputs from PTI)
