The Congress will conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh for better planning of resource allocation for the backward classes after it comes to power in the State, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday. The State is scheduled to hold Assembly election later this year.
Addressing a public rally at Sagar, Mr. Kharge targeted the BJP government for corruption and reiterated the the party’s five promises of waiving farmers’ debt, 100 units of free power, ₹1,500 monthly stipend for women, gas cylinder for ₹500 and the restoration of the old pension scheme for government employees.
“Only the caste census can reveal which community is poor, who are really backward, who are landless, and who are uneducated,” Mr. Kharge said.
In this context, he underlined that the Congress had given representation to six backward class people in the recently announced Congress Working Committee, the apex decision-making body of the party.
Targeting the BJP, he said that in Karnataka it was 40% corruption, referring to the “40% commission” charges against the previous BJP government, and asked how much was it in Madhya Pradesh. To this, there were scattered voices shouting “50%”. “We have removed the 40% government in Karnataka and it is now on you to push out this 50% government,” he said.
Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the State to lay the foundation stone of a Ravidas memorial at Badtuma village an election gimmick, Mr. Kharge asked, “They remember Sant Ravidas [ a 14th century poet and social reformer revered by Scheduled Castes] only during the elections. You have been PM for nine years and Shivraj Chauhan has been CM for 18 years what were you doing all this while?”
He cited a newspaper report from August 14, 2019 about a Ravidas temple being razed in Delhi. He promised that the Congress, after forming the government in Madhya Pradesh, would set up a university in the name of Sant Ravidas to propagate his belief and teachings.
Mr. Kharge also accused the BJP of stealing the mandate that was in the Congress’s favour in the previous election. “This is an illegal government,” he said.
Addressing the rally, Congress State unit president and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath said the State had taken the top spot in corruption, atrocities against Dalits, unemployment and lawlessness. “The BJP is known here for,“Prachaar [publicity], Bhrastachaar [corruption] and Atyachaar [atrocities]” Mr. Nath said.
