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Rahul Gandhi on Monday announced that the Congress Working Committee, the party’s apex decision making body, had “decided unanimously to support caste census in the country”.
“The CWC has decided unanimously to support caste census in the country. It is a powerful progressive step for the emancipation of the poor in the country”, the Congress MP said in a briefing after the meeting.
Gandhi launched an all out attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the caste census. “The PM is incapable of doing the caste census. Our 3 out of 4 CMs are from the OBC category. Out of 10 BJP CMs, only one CM is from the OBC category. How many BJP CMs are from the OBC category? The PM doesn’t work for the OBCs but to distract them from main issues”, he said.
The Congress leader’s remark comes on a day the Election Commission announced the dates for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram.
The CWC’s resolution on supporting caste census comes days after the Bihar government, of which Congress is a part of, released the caste census survey report. The survey revealed that the extremely backward classes (EBC) comprise 36.01% of the population, the backward classes 27.12% and the general category 15.52% of the covered population.
Congress-ruled Rajasthan has also issued an order to conduct caste survey in the state.
“A new chapter in social justice. The Union government, which is against the deprived, has been evading caste census in the country. This has resulted in social justice facing obstacles. Therefore, the state government has decided to conduct caste survey through its resources for ensuring benefits to all the needy in Rajasthan”, chief minister Ashok Gehlot posted on social media platform X.
“On the basis of the results, we will formulate schemes for the needs of various sections of the society”, he added.
The state department of planning (Economic and Statistics) has been made the nodal department for the work. However, the order does not provide a time frame for the conduct of the population count.
Sharing a copy of the order for caste survey on its official ‘X’ account, the ruling party said, “The Congress government of Rajasthan will conduct a caste-based survey. Congress is working on its resolution of ‘whoever participates, so does his participation’.”
(With PTI inputs)
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