NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked journalists at a press conference to raise their hands if they were Dalits or from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to reiterate his point that the downtrodden were not getting their fair share in the country’s assets and institutions.
“How many Dalits are there in this room.. how many OBCs are there in the room, raise your hands…,” the former Congress president asked at the press conference after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here.
Rahul Gandhi added that this is why “Congress is asking what the share of Dalits, tribals, and other backward classes (OBCs) is in the country’s assets, institutions, and population.”
“It is necessary to ask a question. I am just asking a question; what will be done with the data has not yet been discussed. But we are asking a historical question, how much share is the OBC class getting, how much is the Dalit class getting, how much are the Adivasis getting, and how much are the remaining people getting? This is a historical question, as the new economic model and political model will be based on it,” he said.
Gandhi asserted that PM Modi’s aim is to distract the public.
“PM’s aim is to distract… In the coming times, he will keep bringing up many distractions. This (caste census) is not a political decision but a decision based on justice. There are no political calculations,” he said.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously supported the idea of a caste census in the country and called it a “progressive and powerful step”, the Congress leader said.
He also said that Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan believe that it is a very important step. (ANI)