No Dalits, Backwards Or Adivasis Could Be Seen At The Inauguration Of Ram Mandir: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, April 24: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today asserted that no power on earth can prevent the caste census from taking place. “I am not interested in caste, I am interested in justice”, he said, while addressing the Samajik Nyay Sammelan organised here today.

“It is not a political issue for me, it is my life’s mission”, he remarked, adding, “while there sometimes can be a compromise on politics, but there can never be any compromise on life mission”.

Gandhi said, Congress has always done revolutionary things like getting the freedom for the country, bringing constitution and democracy, Green Revolution, White Revolution, Bank Nationalisation or abolishing the Privy Purses and in the similar way the caste census will be another revolutionary measure.

He said, after seventy years of independence it was very important to assess where the country stands and what direction it should take from here.

The former Congress president maintained that the backwards, the Dalits, the Adivasis and the minorities together constitute about “90 percent” of the country’s population and yet their representation in different sectors and institutions was nil or at best negligible.

He said, take any institution, be it the media or the corporate houses, private hospitals and universities or even the judiciary, the representation from the “90 percent” population was either nil or quite negligible.

Referring to PM’s criticism, Gandhi pointed out, he had not yet suggested any solution but only the way to identify the problem like an X-ray and still the national media and the Prime Minister Modi had started accusing him of “dividing the people and dividing the country”. “I don’t think anybody should have any objection to an X-ray”, he observed.

He said, if you want to become a superpower and if you want to compete with countries like China, you can’t do it without engaging the ’90 percent’ population of the country which is still marginalised.

Pointing out how marginalised this section of population was, which includes the Adivasis, he referred to the inauguration of the new parliament building. He said, ideally the President, who is the head of the State should have been inaugurating it, but she was not let to do that as she was an Adivasi.

Similarly, he added, no Dalits, Backwards or Adivasis could be seen at the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Gandhi said that including the caste census in the party’s manifesto was the first step towards that direction. “Note it down, no power can stop caste census from taking place”, he said, while asserting, “it is not a political issue for me, but my life’s mission”.