Congress Working Committee to Discuss Pahalgam Terror Attack and Caste Census
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is scheduled to meet in Delhi on Friday to address the Pahalgam terror attack and the government’s announcement to include caste enumeration in the upcoming Census. The opposition party has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the caste census announcement, arguing it provides a "headline without a deadline."
Sources indicate that the CWC is likely to pass resolutions calling for concrete action against Pakistan over the terror attack and allocating funds for the caste enumeration exercise as part of the decadal Census.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, "There is a meeting of the CWC at 4 pm on Friday. The most important issue is the Pahalgam attack, and we will discuss that as it is the biggest political issue before the country. The country is waiting for action, and those who have lost their family members are seeking justice."
Ramesh also mentioned that the Congress would raise in Parliament the demand to remove the 50% quota cap. "We want to discuss the road ahead for the party after the government’s announcement. Caste census has been a long-standing demand of the Congress, which is why the government has made this announcement. But we want answers from the government regarding the timeline, budget, and the 50% cap on reservation," said a highly placed source in the party.
Ramesh also asked, "Like what Rahul Gandhi said yesterday, ‘headline toh de diya, lekin deadline kaha hai (you gave us the headline but what about the deadline)?’"
Following the Cabinet nod for the collection of caste data, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LOP) Rahul Gandhi, who has been a vocal advocate of a caste census, said the exercise was "our vision" and the "first step" towards a "new development paradigm." He said the next steps should include lifting the 50% cap on reservation and implementing reservation in private educational institutions.
Gandhi told reporters at the All India Congress Committee’s Akbar Road office in Delhi, "We had said in Parliament that we will get the caste census done. And we also said the 50% cap on reservation, the artificial wall, will be broken. What happened that, suddenly, Narendra Modi ji, who used to say that there are just four castes, announced the caste census? We fully support this. But we want a timeline and when it will be done. This is the first step. Telangana has become a model for the caste census."
Describing the Telangana census as "detailed and granular" and pointing out that it was undertaken through an "open process," Gandhi said the national census should "follow some of the ideas" from the exercise in the Congress-ruled state. "We are more than happy to help," said Gandhi.
Since the announcement, the talk in the party has been about how it needs to "own the narrative" on the caste census and make sure "people know that it was because of pressure from the Congress that the government caved to this demand." The apprehension in Congress ranks is that, in one stroke, Modi may have taken away one of its crucial poll planks.
The LOP also said that the Congress had shown "we can pressure the government to do the caste census" and "we will show that we can do the same for (Article) 15(5)."
The demand for a caste census has also been the centrepiece of the Congress’s social justice agenda to reach out to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which have moved away from the party in the post-Mandal years and embraced the BJP under Modi.
Reference : https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/congress-caste-census-cwc-meet-9976451/
