New Delhi, April 18: Congress President Mallikarjuna has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to conduct a caste census immediately.
The pitch from the Congress President came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday raised the demand to know the strength of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the country.
Going by the repeated demands of the Congress for caste census of OBCs, it looks like that the Grand Old Party (GoP) wants the issue caste census as its focus and thrust in order to keep the BJP-led NDA on tenterhooks till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress believes that this demand for caste census of OBCs can become an effective tool in its hand to beat the BJP which has succeeded in unifying the splintered backward communities under the larger Hindutva umbrella.
“The biggest question is how many OBCs, tribals and dalits are there in India,” Rahul Gandhi had asked, while addressing the public meeting at Kolar on Sunday and added, “if we talk of money and power distribution, then the first step should be to find out the size of their population”
Kharge took cue from Rahul Gandhi and wrote to Modi on the issue on Sunday. “The meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes would be incomplete in the absence of such data,” Kharge said.
The Congress President has said in his letter, “I am writing to you once again to place on record the demand of the Indian National Congress for an up-to-date Caste census. My colleagues and I have raised this demand earlier in both the Houses of parliament on number of occasions as have leaders of many other opposition parties.”
Kharge also criticized the NDA government’s failure in conducting the decennial census, which was scheduled to be conducted in 2021. “This census is the responsibility of the Union government. We demand that it be done immediately and that a comprehensive Caste Census be made its integral part,” the Congress President added.
The Congress is in touch with other Opposition parties to amplify the campaign for caste census. Recently, the leaders of as many as 13 parties had met in the residence of Sharad Pawar to fine-tune their strategy.
EOM
