Rahul Gandhi demands a deadline and applauds the “sudden announcement” of the caste count.
The PM must take action against the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror assault, according to Mr. Gandhi, and the terrorists must pay a price for their actions.
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, welcomed what he called a “sudden announcement” of the nationwide caste census on Wednesday. He called for a timeline for its completion and urged the Center to remove the 50% reservation cap and guarantee quotas in private educational institutions under Article 15(5) of the Constitution.
Mr. Gandhi claimed that the Congress party’s attempts to exert pressure on the government had been successful, but he quickly added that the caste census shouldn’t follow the same timeframe as the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023.
The caste census served as our example. At a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office here, Mr. Gandhi stated, “This [the caste census] was our model. I am glad they have adopted it but [what] we want is that we are given the dates by when this will be done, and there should budgetary provision for this,” Adjoined by communications chief Jairam Ramesh and the party’s general secretary (organization), K.C. Venugopal, he added.
Mr. Gandhi suggested that the Center adopt the “Telangana census model” and offered to assist in creating a model akin to it. The questions in Telangana were created through an open, rather than closed, consultation process. The Congress leader stated, “We would be more than happy to assist the government in developing the national census along similar lines, and we want the national [caste] census to follow some of the ideas.”
The 50% reservation cap is “becoming an impediment to the progress of backward castes, Dalits, and Adivasis, and it needs to be demolished,” according to the former head of Congress, who has been calling for a caste census for the past two years as part of his fight for social justice.
“We want to go beyond the caste census and find out how 90% of our population participates in the nation’s political structure…He referred to the caste census as a “new paradigm of development” and stated, “And we want to give them access to power.”
During the press event, Mr. Gandhi also spoke directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that those responsible for the Pahalgam terror act must bear the consequences.
According to Mr. Gandhi, “whoever they are, wherever they are, they have to pay for it, and they have to pay for it properly, [and] not in some half-hearted way.” He also stated that the prime minister must not waste time or hesitate and must make it clear that India would not put up with this crap. He must act quickly, yet he can take action whenever he sees fit.
The Opposition leader refused to get into the timing of the announcement in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, and the Assembly election in Bihar later this year. “You are a journalist; you can speculate. I work with facts,” Mr. Gandhi said in response to a question on the timing of the caste census announcement.
