The Congress Working Committee, on Friday, reaffirmed its demand for a time-bound accountability by the government in the serious lapses in security and intelligence that led to the terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 innocent citizens.
Noting that the Congress had extended all possible support to the Centre in the fight against terrorism at the last CWC meeting, the party also called for a sustained moral and institutional support to the victims’ families asserting that “compensation alone is not enough, long-term rehabilitation, mental health support, and honouring the memory of those lost through national recognition and civic remembrance are equally essential.”
“The CWC has urged the government to act with firmness, strategic clarity to isolate, penalize Pak for continued export of terror to India,” the Congress said at a press briefing jointly addressed by senior party leaders Bhupesh Baghel Sachin Pilot Charanjit Channi and Jairam Ramesh.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, who presided over the meeting, said in his opening remarks that “no clear strategy had come from the government even several days after the Pahalgam attack”.
The CWC also demanded “urgent implementation of Article 15(5) of the Constitution, which enables the provision of reservations for OBCs, Dalits, and Adivasis in private educational institutions.”
Raising doubts over the government’s intentions, Kharge asked party leaders to remain alert to take the caste survey to a logical conclusion.
The CWC, which is the highest decision-making body of the Congress, had met to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack and the roadmap of the party’s social justice agenda after the government’s announcement to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census. Accordingly, it adopted two separate resolutions including one on the Pahalgam terror attack and the other on caste-based census.
Seeking a removal of the “arbitrary ceiling of 50% on reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC”, the resolution, on caste census, asked for a time-bound survey and advocated a model followed by Telangana state. “Telangana provides an effective and inclusive framework that the Government of India must emulate. In Telangana, the design of the caste survey was developed through a consultative and transparent process, with the active involvement of civil society, social scientists, and community leaders. Rather than being a closed bureaucratic exercise, it was open to public inputs and scrutiny,” the resolution said.
Kharge also credited former party chief Rahul Gandhi for the government’s decision to conduct a caste survey, saying the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had again proved that if “we raise the issues of the people with honesty, the government has to bow down.”