It was Rahul Gandhi who made caste count champion, which the Center has announced that would be part of the next census, DK Shivkumar of Karnataka told NDTV.
Earlier this week, a major policy change, the BJP -led central government announced that the next decadel census would include caste calculations for the first time after independence.
“This is the brainchild of the Congress party. It is Rahul Gandhi who has picked it up. Because they feel that social justice should be given to all sections of the society. So they have made it very clear to the manifesto and many other places that it is a need for this current generation. Especially those communities have been influenced.
The BJP, however, disagree with the claims of the Congress – especially a caste census was their long -standing demand.
Announcing on Wednesday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the Congress always opposed a caste census and the category was never included in the censor since independence.
Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana have already organized a caste census in their states. Telangana has also implemented 42 percent backward class reservation for people in the state.
Karnataka became the second Congress-ruled state after Telangana, when the backward classes for the Karnataka State Commission presented the report of the fish census (Social, Economic and Educational Survey) to the Siddaramaiah-Left cabinet.
“So he (Rahul Gandhi) raised his voice. He advised the government and everyone to take the issue. He was also a part of the process of these meetings in Telangana,” according to the main problems of the Congress in the state, Mr. Shivkumar insisted.
It was pressurized to answer that if the demand for increased reservation, in view of caste census, especially in the private sector, would harm ‘Brand Bengaluru’, Mr. Shivkumar said, “This is a separate ballgeem in the private sector. First, we should decide what it should do.
“I am very happy that at least now the BJP government has opened its eyes. And Rahul Gandhi shouted years after this. Then he said yes, it is a need for an hour,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Soon after the government announced a caste census, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi welcomed the verdict, and emphasized the need for a clear time.
“We had said in Parliament that we would do caste census. We also said that we will scrap 50% cap, artificial walls that are in place. Narendra Modi used to say that there are only four castes. What happened, but suddenly after 11 years, caste census was announced,” Shri Gandhi said.
“We fully support it, but we want a time -line. We want to know when it will happen. This is the first step. This is a model in the Telangana caste census, and it can become a blueprint. We provide support to the government in designing caste census … There are two examples – Bihar and Telangana, and a huge difference,” he said.
