BHOPAL: Addressing an election rally in Shahdol, a tribal-dominated district of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said if elected to power, caste census will be the first exercise that the Congress government will take.
“Our governments have already started working on it [caste census] in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh; it will be the first thing to be done, once the Congress government returns to power in MP,” the former Congress president said.
Recently, Bihar’s grand-alliance government, whose one of the constituents is Congress, released the report of the caste census it had conducted in the state which claimed that over 84 per cent of Bihar’s population is of backward castes (EBC, BC, OBC, SC, STs and others).
Claiming that OBC, SC and STs are “not getting their due in the country’s decision making and development process”, the former Congress president, said, “Out of every Rs 100 spent by the central government, the share of tribal decision makers is just 10 paisa. This amounts to utter disrespect for tribals. Owing to this only we’re demanding caste census in the country to first know the actual caste numbers to render them their share.”
“We’ll keep on pressuring the Modi government for caste census, they’ll have to do it, and else we’ll do it on coming to power. Let me see how far the BJP runs away from conducting caste census,” he added.
Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi’s first election rally was in the OBC-dominated Shajapur district of western Madhya Pradesh.
With his second rally in tribal-dominated area and his clarion call for caste census, political observers are of an opinion that Congress is trying to consolidate OBC, SC and ST votes and hit at Vindhya region which is among the most caste-polarised regions and a “bright spot” for the BJP.
Recalling BJP’s veteran leader L K Advani’s assertion that “Madhya Pradesh is RSS-BJP’s real laboratory”, the Congress MP said, “In this laboratory, money is stolen by giving treatment to dead in hospitals and even from religious Mahakal corridor”.
Adivasi or Vanvasi?
Rahul Gandhi said PM Narendra Modi earlier addressed Adivasis as Vanvasis, but when Congress objected, he started calling them tribals. But in his mind Adivasis are always Vanvasis, he added.