Congress asks state units to highlight Rahul Gandhi’s role in making Modi government announce Caste Census

New Delhi: At a time the BJP intends to appropriate the Opposition’s social justice plank, the Congress has instructed its leaders to highlight the demand for quotas for OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis in private educational institutions and top leader Rahul Gandhi’s "role" in making the Modi government to announce a caste census during the ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ campaign.

It wants the leaders and workers to “expose the BJP’s anti-Bahujan ideology, its resistance to caste enumeration, and its efforts to suppress social justice” during the ongoing campaign, which also includes a house-to-house campaign between May 20 and 30.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal issued a circular to its state units asking them to “vocally and visibly” raise the issues highlighted in the May 2 resolution of the Congress Working Committee on Caste Census with a special emphasis on the “immediate implementation” of Article 15(5).

Quota in private institutions is one of the three pillars of Congress’ social justice plank, the others being conducting Caste Census and removing the 50 per cent cap on reservation. With the government announcing Caste Census, the Congress has shifted its focus to Article 15(5).

The action plan for the campaign includes organising public meetings involving activists, teachers, lawyers, shopkeepers and those from 'bahujan' communities and mobilising broad-based public support for Caste Census and full implementation of Article 15(5).

The leaders' have been asked to disseminate the party’s “historical” commitments at the grass root level.

The communication action plan includes holding press conferences and and a social media outreach in which workers, youth leaders, and elected representatives actively post on all platforms, amplifying the party's demand for caste census, leadership role of Rahul and the CWC resolution and the BJP’s “record of caste denial and anti-Bahujan actions”.

These efforts “must reflect a unified communication strategy that brings clarity, conviction, and high visibility to our campaign for social justice”. The state units have to treat this campaign “with top priority” and submit weekly reports on the progress of each action point to the central leadership.

“After sustained and principled pressure from the Congress, the Modi government, which had long ridiculed, delayed, and dismissed the demand, has now been compelled to accept the genuine and democratic call for a caste-wise census,” Venugopal said.

The CWC on Thursday passed a resolution seeking caste census without any delay, a transparent and time-bound process, immediate Parliamentary debate, full budgetary allocation, a participatory and inclusive approach in designing the questionnaire, enumeration, classification, and publication of data and use of updated caste data to review and strengthen policies on reservation.