Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri on Tuesday said the party’s demand that India needs a socio-economic caste census is not about strengthening caste-system but to ensure that reservations are calibrated based on new data.
Mr. Alagiri, party MP Thirunavukkarasar and its SC cell head M.P. Ranjan Kumar participated in an event where the leaders garlanded Indira Gandhi’s statue on Walltax Road in Chennai.
Speaking to the reporters later, he said, “We have reservations in India. But, it is not based on accurate data. The decadal census doesn’t show us the population of castes; the present reservations are based on projected data. As it is not accurate, many communities are missing out on reservations. This is why Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) wants to do socio-economic caste census; it is not to strengthen the castes. It will help in ensuring that reservations are calibrated according to accurate data from the caste census.”
Mr. Alagiri also rejected Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai’s comments that Tamil Nadu government was accruing debts without implementing appropriate schemes.
“Mr. Annamalai is making inappropriate comments every day. Tamil Nadu has been borrowing money by adhering to the rules. All States have the right to loans. What is the debt accrued by Central government? It is much more than what it was during Manmohan Singh’s tenure. There is nothing wrong in taking loans as per what is allowed. The Tamil people will reject these criticisms,” he said.
Mr. Alagiri added that the recent recommendation by a high-level committee of National Council for Educational Research and Training that the name ‘Bharat’ should be used instead of India is simply an effort to divert attention from serious issues faced by the people.
“We are not against the use of ‘Bharat’, but why are they against using India? It is because they want to trigger a debate on this issue and divert attention from their failures in economy, law and order issues. There is nothing to gain from changing the name. There has been no debate about this,” he said.
