Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reasserted that “Caste Census is the first step towards a new paradigm of development.”
In a post shared on his social media handle X, the Congress scion pointed out that the BJP had called the Caste Census divisive while “I called it the truth.”
“For years, we fought for it—because India cannot grow if 90% of its people are excluded. Today, the Prime Minister and the government have finally been compelled to listen to the will of the people,” Mr Gandhi asserted.
The Congress had Wednesday welcomed the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs to approve a proposal to include caste enumeration in the next caste census as a “step in the right direction” which the Congress has been demanding right from the beginning.
“We welcome it but want to know the timeline by when it would be carried out,” Mr Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, had said asserting that the “caste-based census is a new paradigm of development.”
Claiming that “we have said in the Parliament that we will get the caste census done,” Mr Gandhi had said: “What suddenly happened that after 11 years a caste census was announced…It was our vision, we are happy they have adopted it.” He however said that he was in favour of scrapping the 50% barrier on reservation.
Mr Gandhi also demanded that the government should announce a timeline and also get a budgetary allocation for carrying out the census.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs had on Wednesday approved a proposal to include caste enumeration in the next caste census.