Indore, Madhya Pradesh:

The Congress will not profit politically from its demand for caste census in the country, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said on Sunday.

People know the Congress did not undertake such an exercise when it was in power at the Centre, Mr Athawale added.

“When the Congress was in power at the Centre it never went for caste based census. But now their leaders Rahul Gandhi are seeking it,” the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment told PTI.

The Gandhi siblings have been demanding a Bihar-like caste census across the country claiming it would ensure SCs, STs and OBCs get justice.

“Congress will not profit politically from caste census as people know the party did not undertake this exercise when it was in power,” The RPI(A) chiefsaid.

Article 17 of the Constitution has a provision for eradication of casteism and, therefore, the government would face a problem in carrying out a caste census, he claimed.

Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh will take place on November 17, while results will be declared on December 3. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Hyderabad:

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has sought to know why the BJP does not get “Backward Classes caste census” conducted if it was so concerned about the community.

The statement comes a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced at a rally in Suryapet to make a Backward Class (BC) leader as Chief Minister of Telangana if the BJP was voted to power after the November 30 assembly polls in the state.

Addressing a public meeting at Zaheerabad on Friday night Mr Owaisi called BJP and Congress twins and said the two parties will not be successful in the Telangana assembly polls.

“Amit Shah sahab, I am telling you with responsibility. You and Congress have become ‘oule zoule bhai-behan’ (twins). Nothing is going to happen for you people (in favour of) in Telangana. It will be ‘bye, bye’ for you,” he said.

“I would like to ask Amit Shah. If you are so sympathetic towards backward class, why you don’t get BC census conducted,” he said.

Neither PM Narendra Modi nor Congress leader Rahul Gandhi supported his demand for sub quota for OBC and Muslim women in the women’s reservation bill passed in Parliament, Mr Owaisi claimed.

Referring to former MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who returned to Congress after quitting BJP this week, he wondered whether Congress has become a “washing machine”. Owaisi, however, did not mention Raj Gopal Reddy’s name.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s comments about AIMIM having a tacit understanding with the BJP, the AIMIM leader asked how did Rahul Gandhi lose in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 elections.

Congress and BJP were in direct contest in 185 seats in 2019 but former won in only 16 and he (Owaisi) had no role to play there, he said.

“How did you (Congress) lose there?” he asked.

Mr Owaisi reiterated his appeal to support ‘mamu’ (BRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) where AIMIM is not in the fray in the polls.

“Now, it is known from Zaheerabad and Munugode (where Raj Gopal Reddy lost bypoll on BJP ticket last year) that both BJP and Congress are ‘oule, zoule bhai (twins),” he said.

He also spoke about a book given to him titled ‘Congress is mother of RSS’.

Mr Owaisi stressed that people will be given importance wherever regional parties are in power.

“If they both (national parties BJP and Congress) come to power, then there will not be anyone to address your problems,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Congress Working Committee has unanimously endorsed a call for caste census at a meeting held today. Sources said the initiative was of Rahul Gandhi  who in an address to the party later, said the INDIA bloc will “put pressure on the BJP to conduct this”.

The Prime Minister, Mr Gandhi said, is “shying away” but the conduction of a caste census does not depend on him.

“This is not a political decision. This is a decision for providing justice to the downtrodden… Litmus tests work in chemistry, not in politics. We are promising caste census because we sincerely believe in it,” he added.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the party has consistently raised its demand for a nationwide caste-based census. The demand has gained widespread public support especially after the Bihar government’s release of a caste survey.

“For proper implementation and delivery of government programmes and welfare schemes, it is important that we have scientific socio-economic data of the marginalised sections including their numbers, representation, and economic and social condition. Thus, it becomes important that we must deliberate upon the issue of Caste-based Census,” he said.   

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| Photo Credit: AP

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Mumbai:

Amid all the bonhomie on display, the third meeting of the INDIA alliance also saw one of the first major differences emerge between the opposition parties since they decided to band together in June. 

While an election resolution was adopted at the Mumbai meeting, a political resolution had to be dropped after a disagreement over the inclusion of a demand for a caste census, sources told NDTV. 

While the Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal pushed for the caste census demand, the charge against it was led by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the sources said. 

Interestingly, after the second meeting of the alliance in July, the ‘samuhik sankalp’ (joint resolution) had specifically called for the implementation of the caste census. 

“We have come together to defeat the hatred and violence being manufactured against minorities; stop the rising crimes against women, Dalits, adivasis and Kashmiri Pandits; demand a fair hearing for all socially, educationally and economically backward communities; and, as a first step, implement the Caste Census,” the parties had said in their resolution passed “in one voice”.

A caste-based survey being conducted by the Bihar government, championed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as a move to help the disadvantaged, had been upheld by the Patna High Court last month. 

The high court had dismissed various petitions challenging the Bihar government’s decision to conduct the caste-based survey and the socio-economic survey in the state. The court’s order had come nearly three months after it had stayed the survey.

Mr Kumar had claimed last week that the decision to hold the caste-based survey was taken unanimously by the leaders of all political parties, including the BJP, in the state.

On August 29, the Centre had also amended an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court and dropped a paragaph that said “no other body is entitled to conduct the exercise of either Census or any action akin to it”. Hours after submitting the affidavit, the government had said that the paragraph had inadvertently crept in. 

New Delhi:

No other body other than the Union Government can conduct a caste census, the Supreme Court was told today. The Centre, in an affidavit, asserted that the Census Act, 1948, empowers only the Government to conduct the census. The move is a challenge to the Bihar government which in an earlier hearing informed the Supreme Court that an exercise of conducting surveys of the caste census in Bihar was conducted by August 6 and the data gathered uploaded by August 12.

The Supreme Court, on August 21, had allowed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, to file its response on the issue within seven days after he said the survey could have some consequences. Today was the seventh day.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has hit out at the Centre for filing the affidavit. They have no knowledge. They only know how to lie and suppress the truth. They have opposed it even in the affidavit. It has been made clear that the BJP does not want it (caste census) and is opposing it. If they support it, then they should conduct it (caste census) across the country,” he said

Senior BJP leader and former deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi, however, said that his party supports caste census but “according to the Census Act, only the Centre can conduct a caste survey.”

The Government said that it is committed to taking all affirmative actions for the “upliftment of SCS/STS/SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India and the applicable law.”

Various petitions have been moved in the Supreme Court challenging the Patna High Court judgment upholding the caste survey ordered by the Bihar Government.

In the August 21 hearing, the top court told the petitioners that it will not stay the exercise unless they made out a prima facie case against it.

The Patna High Court had earlier dismissed the pleas challenging the Nitish Kumar government’s decision to conduct the survey based on castes. The high court had said in its 101-page verdict, “We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice….”

The Bihar caste survey would cover an estimated population of 12.70 crores in an estimated 2.58 crore households in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies. Chief Minister NItish Kumar insists that the caste survey would be beneficial for all sections of the society.