‘People need to understand makeup of Indian population’: Rahul on caste census

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he is in full support of a caste-based census and publicising the data of the Other Backward Classes (OBC). During a press interaction in Telangana’s Kothur, he said the socio-economic caste-based census was first introduced by the Congress and it is important for people to understand the composition of the Indian population.

“It is the Congress who came up with the idea of the caste-based census. I am very clear, I have no question in my mind. The OBC census needs to be made public. People need to understand the makeup of the Indian population,” Gandhi said. His reference is to 2011, when the Socio Economic and Caste census was conducted by the central government during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. However, the caste data was not published citing inherent errors, but it is likely political sensitivities stayed its hand.

Gandhi further said, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Centre and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the state are creating a monopoly over various industries by favouring a few businesspeople.

“Huge amount of small and medium companies, even those that are not crony capitalists, their potential is being wiped out. We will definitely ensure (after coming to power) that the business environment is fair and money is not concentrated the way it has been concentrated,” Gandhi said.

The Congress MP also sought to downplay the BJP’s comment describing the footmarch campaign, Bharat Jodo Yatra, as a “fitness show” for Rahul Gandhi. The BJP had said that gym is a much more effective medium than walking across the country to develop fitness.

Clarifying that the Congress has no relation with the TRS, Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s move to change the name of his party and declare it a national party. “If he believes that he is running a national party, that’s perfectly ok and there’s no problem. If he believes that he’s running a global party, that’s also acceptable,” he said.

The Congress leader said there is high anti-incumbency in Gujarat and the presence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is full of sound and fury there. “The Congress is a party in Gujarat and it is going to win the election there,” he added.