Caste census is an "X-ray" that is necessary to ensure the participation of Other Backward Classes, Dalits and tribals in the government as per their proportion in population, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress has included caste census as one of its promises in its poll manifesto and has accused the BJP-led Union government of opposing such an exercise.
"When a person gets injured, we take him for an X-ray to find out if he has suffered a bone fracture or not. In the same way, I call the caste census an X-ray. It will reveal the proportion of OBCs. Dalits and tribals in the population and ensure their participation in government," he said in a rally here.
The OBCs, Dalits and tribals are in tremendous pain due to unemployment and inflation, he said to underline the need for such an exercise.
Asserting that the BJP was opposed to caste census, Gandhi said, " Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls himself an OBC, but when it comes to caste census he says there is only one caste in India and that is the poor."
Only three out of 90 top officials of the Centre are OBCs, Gandhi claimed, adding that "if India's budget is Rs 100, then OBC officials take decisions on expenditure of only Rs 5, while tribal officials take decisions for 10 paise".
The Modi government's steps to promote disinvestment and privatisation of public sector firms have resulted in OBCs, Dalits and tribals being left out of government recruitment, Gandhi claimed.
Gandhi said Goods and Services Tax (GST) was being collected from these poor sections of society and that amount was being used to give huge loans to big industrialists.
-With PTI Input
