LoP Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS claiming that they were strengthening the "wall erected to prevent Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs from claiming their share".
He said the Congress-led UPA government took efforts to "demolish this wall but its efforts were not sufficient enough". While the Congress-led Opposition is trying to help them, he said, the BJP-RSS is adding "cement" on it.
Addressing the party's 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan' here, he said Caste Census is the answer to such efforts as "it would provide a clear picture of where 90 per cent of people, which also include poor in the general category, stands".
He said the whole system is pitted against Dalits, tribals and OBCs as a "wall" obstructs their path, which is "strengthened by Modi and the RSS, and whenever they get time, they add more cement to it".
"PSUs are privatised, government schools and government hospitals are closed. They are forced to spend lakhs of rupees for health care. Where does this money go? It goes to 25 billionaires. Give me the name of one OBC billionaire. Are Adani, Ambani, Tata, Birla OBCs, Dalits or tribals?" he said.
"Slowly the wall is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," he said.
That is why we need a caste census, he said, as it would let people know how many people from the SC, ST, and OBC sections are there in the judiciary, media, corporates, private hospitals and colleges.
"This X-ray is the first step, we know that Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, poor general caste people, minorities are in pain. So, we have to find out where the injury is, where is the fracture, whether there is a compound fracture. We will get data by caste census," he said, adding the day this data comes into the hands of a Congress government, that day the whole paradigm of development will change.
He said he can guarantee that Modi has not read the Constitution, while insisting that the spirit of reformist leaders like BR Ambedkar, Narayana Guru, Jyotibha Phule and Basavanna among others reflect in the Constitution.
"Does the Constitution reflect the voice of (Hindutva ideologue VD) Savarkar? Is it written in the Constitution that you can use violence, kill, threaten people? Is it written that you can run a government through lies? The Constitution is a book of truth and non-violence," he said.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," he added.