PATNA: The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged silence on the caste census issue while replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha. The Congress leader once again dismissed Bihar’s caste-based survey and pitched for the caste census conducted in Telangana.
Addressing a function to celebrate the birth anniversary of freedom fighter and Dalit icon Jaglal Choudhary, Gandhi sought to know from the people whether they heard the prime minister speaking on the caste census during his one-and-a-half-hour speech in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
As Modi, BJP and RSS are against caste census, the PM is maintaining a silence on the issue. They were avoiding caste census as it would lay bare the truth of how backwards, extremely backwards, Dalits, minorities and poor among general castes were deprived, the former Congress president claimed.
Reiterating his commitment to conducting a caste census in the country, Gandhi said that it would not be like the one conducted in Bihar but on the lines of that carried out in Telangana. He said a caste census across India is needed to identify the exact number of Dalits, backwards, minorities, and other sections of society. Notably, Rahul’s caste census pitch had worked in favour of the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“I am waiting for the day when Dalits and weaker sections assume leadership positions in every institution of India,” he asserted while alleging that BJP and RSS were against the Constitution as it guaranteed the rights of Dalits and the downtrodden. He also claimed that there was no participation of Dalits and the oppressed in the present power structure and institutions of the country.
Meanwhile, deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary accused Rahul of insulting Bihar by raising a question mark on the state`s caste-based survey and asked why the report of the caste census conducted by the Karnataka government in 2016 had not been released so far.