Backwards marginalised, need caste census: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday once again said the backward communities do not have proportionate representation in the political, institutional and corporate sectors and that his party will conduct a nation-wide caste census and increase the cap on reservation if it comes to power.

Addressing a gathering in Patna in the memory of freedom fighter and Dalit leader, late Jaglal Choudhary, Gandhi said the real issue of the lack of participation and control of the people of the backward communities in the power and institutional structures of the socially backward community.

"In India's power structure today, whether it is education, health, corporate, business, judiciary, how much is your (socially backward sections) participation? Dalits have been given representation, but it means nothing if there is no participation in the power structure," he said. "Making you sit on the stage has no meaning if the decisions are made from behind the stage. Today, it has become a fashion to give tickets to people from different castes. PM Modi also says this. But then, you snatched the powers of the MLAs. Even the Lok Sabha MPs have no power to make any decisions. You made ministers, but the OSD is from the RSS. The question is about control and participation."


Gandhi said the real solution lay in conducting a caste census and finding the real number of various castes, and then empowering them in the political and institutional structure. He said the Congress would carry out the caste census and increase reservations.

The Congress leader said the caste census done by Telangana was better than that which had been done in Bihar. Gandhi once again alleged that the Modi government was favouring a few industrialists and neglecting the people belonging to the poor and backward sections.