As the Congress sounded the bugle for Lok Sabha polls with a mega rally in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on Thursday, caste census and minimum income guarantee emerged as the two most important talking points of the party for the elections.
At the Congress' 'Hain Taiyaar Hum' rally held at Nagpur's Azad Maidan and attended by party leaders and workers from across the country, former party chief Rahul Gandhi dispelled all doubts about whether in the aftermath of the defeats in the recent state elections, the party would do a rethink on the issue of caste census.
The Congress had promised a caste census in the assembly elections and it was hoping to capitalise on the promise since Other Backward Castes form a sizable chunk of the population in the Hindi heartland states that went to polls. However, the party's defeat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh had given rise to doubts about the efficacy of caste census as an electoral issue.
However, addressing the rally on Thursday, Gandhi declared that if the Congress came to power, it would carry out a caste census on an urgent basis. He reiterated his observation that there were very few people in the decision-making positions who came from the OBCs, the Scheduled Castes, or the tribal community despite these communities forming the bulk of the population.
Gandhi had first given the call of 'Jitni Abadi, Utna Haq' (proportionate reservation) in the assembly elections in Karnataka earlier this year, a clear indication that the social justice plank would be an important element of the Congress' campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. On the day the dates for the recently concluded state elections were announced, the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution in which it forcefully backed the demand for caste census. Gandhi had announced the CWC's decision at a press conference that day.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in his speech that the party was committed to implementing the NYAY scheme or the scheme for providing the poor a minimum income. In a recall of the party's poll promise made ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Kharge said a minimum of Rs 70,000 would be given annually to the senior-most women of poor families.
The elephant in the room, that is the upcoming inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which has put the Congress in a tight spot, was obliquely referred to by both Kharge and Gandhi.
Kharge said, in what was an apparent reference to the BJP leaders playing up the temple issue, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead of dealing with the issues of the people, is completely immersed in devotion to God.
Gandhi touched upon the topic of what is the Congress' ideology. He said it was summed up in his statement which was made during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, that the Congress is opening shops of love in the market of hatred.
The leaders also reiterated the Congress' commitment to the INDIA alliance of opposition parties, and exuded confidence about the grouping emerging victorious in the Lok Sabha elections.
