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‘90% people sitting out of system’: Rahul Gandhi's fresh caste census demand
The Congress has been vocal about caste census, having promised it in its Lok Sabha election manifesto.
Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reiterated the demand for a caste census, claiming that 90 per cent of India's population is not a part of the system.
Addressing the ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, the former Congress chief said,"Ninety per cent of people are sitting outside the system, they have skills and knowledge but they don't have access (to the top). This is why we have raised the demand for caste-based Institutional census."
“BJP leaders are saying that an OBC section will be given after caste census...We want the list of different communities. For us caste census is not just a census, it is a foundation for policy making,” ANI quoted Gandhi as saying.
“Just conducting a caste census is not enough, it is also important to understand how the wealth is being distributed...It is also important to find out how much is the participation of OBCs, Dalits, workers in the bureaucracy, judiciary, media?” he added.
“The aim of the caste census is not to just know about the count of various castes but their participation in the country’s wealth as well. The vision to know how the wealth is getting distributed in the country among different castes,” Gandhi said.
“I have been in politics since 2004 and the BJP has been like a guru for me as it has taught me what not to do,” he added.
The Congress has been vocal about caste census, having promised it in its Lok Sabha election manifesto. The grand old party had promised to conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste Census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Tjhe Congress had also promised to pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST and OBC.
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Rahul Gandhi called caste census his ‘life mission’
In April, Gandhi had called the caste census his “life mission” and had promised to conduct it if his party was voted to power.
“Caste census is not politics for me, it is my life mission. No power in the world can stop the caste census. The census will be the first task we will take up when the Congress is elected to office. This is my guarantee,” the 54-year-old politician had said at an event in the national capital.
