Caste census would be the first thing the Congress would do if the party is elected to power in this Lok Sabha election, senior party leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday, April 24. “Up to 90% of Indians are being subjected to grave injustice,” he said, referring to the marginalised castes and tribes of the country. “When I called this out, the Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started attacking me. But no power can stop the caste census.”
Speaking at a social justice event at Jawahar Bhawan in Delhi, Rahul highlighted the lack of representation of Dalit, OBC, and tribal persons in India’s media, judiciary, medical, or corporate fields, stating he was “not interested in caste, but in justice.”
On Modi’s and the BJP’s allegations that Congress was trying to divide the nation through wealth redistribution, he said, “All I said was that let’s find out the extent of injustice that is happening to 90% of the people in India. I didn’t even mention what sort of action was to be taken, but all of the national media and Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately started claiming this was an attempt to divide the nation.” He also alleged that the Congress’ “revolutionary” new manifesto has left Modi panicking.
The Congress had earlier dismissed Modi’s claims as scaremongering, stating that nowhere in its manifesto had it claimed to seize wealth from the rich and distribute it among the poor. The manifesto instead says the party will address wealth and income inequality through policy changes, and establish an authority to monitor the distribution of government and surplus land to the poor.
“Patriots want justice for the nation,” Rahul said. “They want India to move forward and become a superpower, for which we have to use the strength of that 90%. But these people who claim to be patriots are scared to analyse the injustices happening to the 90%.”
The Congress leader pointed out that PM Modi has been telling the nation that he is OBC for 10 years. “But as soon as we mentioned the caste census, [Modi] claims there is no caste here. If there is no caste, then how are you OBC? At the time, you should have said I have no caste! Then he is saying there are only two castes in India – the rich and the poor. So if you believe this, take a list of the poor and there you will find OBC, Dalits, and Adivasi people. Take a list of the rich and you won’t find these people there,” he said.
He also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi waived off loans worth Rs 16 lakh crore for his billionaire friends, and that the Congress aims to give a part of the money back to 90% of the country’s population.
Rahul added this was not just his politics now but his life’s mission, and that there was “no compromise in life’s mission.”
In a social media post on April 23, Rahul had said the Congress would form a government of Indians, and not Adanis. “My aim is to give as much money to the poor as Modi gives to Adani. I am counting. When you give one rupee to Adani, I will give one rupee to the poor. I will show you that real politics is not about helping the billionaires. Real politics is about helping farmers, workers, small businesspersons, and the unemployed youth,” he said.
In another post, he pointed out that the Rs 16 lakh crore worth loans that Modi waived off for his billionaire friends could have been used to employ 16 crore youth on a salary of Rs 1 lakh per year. “By giving Rs 1 lakh per year to 16 crore women, the lives of their families could have been changed. Countless suicides could have been prevented by waiving off the loans of 10 crore farmer families. The entire country could have been provided gas cylinders for just Rs 400 for 20 years. The entire expenses of the Indian Army could have been borne for three years. Education up to graduation could have been made free for every youngster from Dalit, tribal, and backward society. The money which could have been used to cure the pain of 'Indians' was spent to create hype for the 'Adanis'. The country will never forgive Narendra Modi for this crime,” the post read.
During a public rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara on April 21, Modi said that the Congress would distribute the country’s wealth among “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”, in an obvious reference to Indian Muslims. He went on to falsely claim that the Congress manifesto talks about taking a stock of the gold from their “mothers and daughters” and distributing the wealth to Muslims, recalling a misinterpreted speech from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.