By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, February 24: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reiterated his demand for the caste census. He claimed that 90 per cent of the people in the country are without representations in higher echelons of the economy.
Holding a roadshow in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh as a part of the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra’, he was joined by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the national general secretary of the Congress. Vadra questioned the development claims of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Vadra alleged that the “bulldozers in Uttar Pradesh are being run over the properties of the people while kingpins of paper leaks are spared”. She also alleged that big-size advertisements are being put out to assert claims of development. Vadra said: “Elections are coming once again. You have to exercise your right to votes. The BJP is winning elections again and again. But employment is rising. You have to ask if you got the jobs. Bulldozers are being run on you and kingpins of scams are spared.”
She was previously the Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. Vadra is widely believed to be bracing up take an electoral plunge, and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency. Her mother, Sonia Gandhi, has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. She had been representing the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat earlier.
Rahul Gandhi stuck to his caste census script in Moradabad which has sizable Muslim population. The Congress is seen to have a strong base in the constituency. But the party lost the grip in the area since 2014.
He claimed that the 90 per cent of the people of the country, consisting of the minorities, Dalits, backward castes, and tribals are without representations in the higher echelons of the society. Rahul Gandhi said: “You take a look at top of the 200 companies in the country. They are not headed by people from the 90 per cent of the population. You take a look at the media companies. You look at the list of the top journalists. You take a look at the High Courts. The people from the 90 per cent of the population will not be found at such places.”
He claimed that the “people from the 90 per cent of the population will be found be among the job seekers of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme, and the contract labour”. The former Congress president asserted that the situation can change only if a caste census is first held in the country.
Subscribe: youtube.com/@TheRaisinaHills Join: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFAp9b60eBiuA8v1x0s
About The Author
