Once again raising the caste census pitch, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the party would conduct a caste survey in Rajasthan if elected to power in the upcoming Assembly election. Mr. Gandhi promised that Other Backward Classes (OBC) would get benefits proportionate to their population, saying a caste census would be launched in the country on the day the Congress government was formed at the Centre.
Mr. Gandhi made the announcement while addressing election rallies in three towns of Rajasthan. “The OBC population in the country is at least 50%, but the BJP-led government [at the Centre] does not want to tell you your correct population,” he said.
“What is the population of OBCs in our country? No one can tell because there is a reason… There is a conspiracy, they do not want to tell you about your real population,” Mr. Gandhi said. He said the census would be a “revolutionary step”, as the nation would make a transformation afterwards, as it had changed with the white (milk cooperatives) and green (agricultural) revolutions.
