The Congress “regrets” that the UPA didn’t include separate quota for women belonging to other backward classes (OBC) and pass the women’s reservation Bill, party leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday even as he asserted that his party would carry out a caste-based census if it comes to power.
Mr Gandhi also urged the Narendra Modi government to immediately implement the women’s bill and not wait for a census or delimitation. exercise.
Stating that the Bill was a diversion and distraction, he said, “It may take 10 years or more to be implemented and we are not sure if it will even be. A few days ago the special session started with great fanfare, there was transition from the old building to new building. It’s a good thing, at first we didn’t know the agenda. Later, we got to know it was the women’s reservation Bill.”
Stating that there were footnotes that the Bill will be implemented after Census and Delimitation, the leader said, “The Bill is a distraction from the caste census demand.”
Stating that MPs are mere statues in the House, he said, “MPs don’t have any power in the law-making process.”
“Officers of OBC, Adivasis and Dalits control 5% of the Budget, the Prime Minister keeps saying that he is a OBC leader, so I want him to explain why there are only three officers at the top, the first step is to find the number of OBCs through a caste census,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Distribution and transfer of power to the people of India was the first step. The data from caste-census will empower the people more, he added.
“When we come to power, the caste census will take place and the OBC community will be empowered and they will participate in governance,” he said.
Efforts to grant 33% reservation to women in Legislative Assemblies and Lok Sabha were on by several governments since 1996. The UPA government had brought a bill, and was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010. However, it got lapsed as it never made it to the Lok Sabha.
