Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the caste census issue during his US visit and said that the party will call for the scrapping of reservations only when “India is a fair place”.
During an interaction with the students and the faculty of Georgetown University in Washington DC, Mr Gandhi said, “The elephant in the room is that 90 per cent of India — OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis don’t play the game…Caste census is a simple exercise to know how the lower castes, backward castes and Dalits are integrated into the system…Out of the top 200 businesses in India, there is almost no ownership of 90 per cent of the population of India. In the highest courts of the country, there is almost no participation of 90 per cent of India. In media, there is zero participation of lower castes, OBCs, Dalits…”
“…We want to understand what their social and financial position looks like…We also want to look at the Indian institutions to have a sense of India’s participation in these institutions..”
The Congress MP emphasised the need for the caste census, which he said has three components — institutional survey, socio-economic survey, and census.
“Caste Census is a simple way of saying: we got independence in 1947, let’s see how the lower castes, backward castes, and Dalits have integrated into the system. What is their actual participation? … A socio-economic survey is to understand the socio-economic position of these castes and the poor…We also want to understand and examine India’s institutions — media, healthcare, education — the ownership, the structure that delivers these services, and India’s participation in these institutions,” Gandhi said.
When a student asked him whether there were other better ways to strengthen institutions at the grassroots level than caste-based reservation, the Congress leader presented her with numbers of the participation of various castes in the governance. He said…”Let’s look at the numbers .. if you look at the Indian government… there are 78 bureaucrats who run the govt.. secretaries to the GOI .. they make financial decisions .. if you add up Dalits, OBCs, and tribals they come to 73 per cent.. Out of 78 people, there is one tribal…there are three Dalits, three OBCs and a minority .. 90 per cent of India has less than one per cent….”
He further said, “We will think of scrapping of reservations when India is a fair place and India is not a fair place … that way it is a problem.. because there are many people who come from the upper castes who say look what have we done wrong .. why we are being punished.. and so then you think of increasing dramatically the supply of some of these things, you think of decentralisation power, you think of involving many more in the governance…”
The Congress leader accused the Indian government of not having adequate representation of the bureaucrats in the government.
Making a strong pitch for the caste census in the US, Rahul Gandhi said, ” The caste census is now an unstoppable idea. The critical question of whether 90 per cent of our population is meaningfully represented in India’s institutional structure — economy, government, education — demands an answer. At its core, this is an issue of fairness and justice. Anything less than a comprehensive caste census along with an economic and institutional survey is unacceptable.”
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