Bill incomplete without OBC quota; implementation after census, delimitation strange: Rahul Gandhi

Pitching for immediate reservation of seats for women in legislatures, Congress' Rahul Gandhi said the bill was incomplete without an OBC quota. Participating in the discussion on the women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, he said the argument that the bill could be implemented only after a new census and delimitation exercises sounded strange to him. Making a strong case for caste census, Gandhi claimed that the government wanted to distract people from the Opposition's demand for a caste census and the Adani controversy.

Gandhi, the last speaker from the Opposition, said, "there is one thing in my view that makes this bill incomplete. I would like to have seen the OBC reservation included in this bill... I wonder if this (time for implementation) is not designed to push the ball forward by seven, eight, nine years and then let this thing play out the way it does." The moment the opposition raises the issue of the caste census, "BJP tries to create a new distraction; a new sudden event, so that the OBC community and the people of India look the other way," he alleged. He claimed that out of 90 secretaries at the Centre, only three belonged to OBC and they controlled only 5% of the budget. He termed it as an 'insult to Backward Classes.'

Speaking on the inauguration and other events held for shifting to the new Parliament building, Gandhi said it was a nice, tasteful building. But he would have liked the President of India to inaugurate it.


"The President of India is a woman. She represents the tribal community. It would have been befitting to have her visible in this transfer from one House to another," he said.