Caste census is our vision, but govt accepted it, so we thank them, said Rahul Gandhi; what more he said?

The central government has announced to conduct caste census in the country. After this announcement, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a press conference and welcomed the government's decision.

Rahul Gandhi said in the press conference, "We had said in Parliament that we will not rest until caste census is done, and will also break the wall of 50% limit in reservation."

He said, "Earlier Narendra Modi used to say that there are only four castes, but suddenly he announced caste census. We fully support this decision of the government, but the government will have to tell its timeline that by when will the work of caste census be completed?"

Rahul said, "Telangana has become a model for caste census and it can become a blueprint. We will help the government in designing the caste census, because this design is very important. We want to bring a new way of development in the country through caste census."

He said that whether it is OBC, Dalit or Adivasi - how much participation they have in the country - will be known only through caste census, but we have to go further. We have to find out how much participation these people have in the institutions and power structure of the country.

Rahul Gandhi said, "Apart from this, the Congress Party had written in its manifesto that reservation should be implemented in private educational institutions under Article 15 (5) and our demand is that the government should implement it immediately."

He said that caste census is our vision, but the government accepted it, so we thank them. We want a complete timeline as to when the work of caste census will be completed. Apart from this, a developmental vision should also be placed before us.

Rahul said that it is clear that the pressure we put on the government for Caste Census has worked.  But we don’t intend to stop here.

⁠We will ensure they conduct a comprehensive and consultative census - a people’s census, not a bureaucratic census 

We will make sure they implement a central law for SC/ST Sub-plan and guarantee budget allocations 

We will ensure Article 15(5) of the Constitution which promises reservation in private education is fully enacted.  This is the will of the people of India and the Modi government has no option but to follow it, Rahul Gandhi added.