Rahul Gandhi Has Some Questions To Government, On Women Reservation Bill, Caste Census And Adani's Wealth (Image: Screen grabbed from Live recording posted by Congress on X)
Though historic Women’s Reservation Bill unanimously passed by the Rajya Sabha after the 11-hour debate on Thursday (September 21), the ambiguity concerning its implementation is still a serious topic of contention. In this regard, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi conducted a Press Conference on Friday and posed some pertinent questions to the government.
LIVE: Special Congress Party briefing by Shri @RahulGandhi at AICC HQ. https://t.co/DbnpiOpqUQ
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 22, 2023
He began his talk by appreciating the Bill, and then explained the roadblocks lies in its implementation. “This bill is great, a critical step for empowerment of women. But when we read the fine print, we found two footnotes stating that Census and delimitation will have to done before implementation of the bill. It will take 10 years, or maybe even more, to get this done.”
He said that Bill’s implementation is delayed so to draw attention away from caste census. “…Modi government doesn’t want to implement Women”s Reservation Bill; it is just indulging in diversionary tactic. They want to divert the attention from the caste census.”
Data on OBC Representation
Adding, Mr. Gandhi presents a data on OBC representation in top positions in Central government offices. Even the BJP government claims about OBC MPs, however, in comparison to earlier times, MPs in BJP government are devoid of power in formulating laws. “As per a BJP MP, OBC MPs are like statues in a temple; they have no power or participation in running the govt,” he said. Since the Prime Minister is talking lot about OBCs he should explain the disparity in their representation in governmental position in accordance with the population. Similar is the situation of Dalits and Tribals. For changing that, the caste census data is required, Mr. Gandhi stressed again.
Caste Census
“We have to empower OBCs, Dalits, tribals, women and poor people of the country,” Mr. Gandhi added. And it is not possible without conducting caste census. He urges Modi government to release the data of the Caste census conducted by the UPA government and conduct the new one immediately.
“Why Modi government is delaying the process of conducting census? It should get the caste census done now. Without it, we can’t give power to the deprived sections of our country. If we aim to distribute power more equitably in India, we need data on caste.”
Power to OBCs vs Power to Adani
Speaking further, he said that, BJP is scared of two issues; Adani’s accumulation of wealth and caste census. BJP wanted the wealth to be concentrated in Adani’s hand, and also not give power to OBC.
Congress Party’s Stand
Mr. Gandhi says that he regret for not including OBC representation while they passed Women Reservation Bill. He also said that when they form the government, they will conduct Caste census and will ensure minorities participation in the running of the country.
