• Source:JND
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Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that the caste survey conducted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led government was ‘fake’ and an exercise to befool the people. He further emphasised that his party will continue to raise its demand for the nationwide caste census as such an initiative is crucial to plan development work in the nation. 

While addressing the 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan' in Patna, Gandhi stated that caste census across the country is “important to find out how much participation OBCs, Dalits and workers have in the bureaucracy and other sectors”

"Caste census should be conducted to understand the true situation of the nation. It will not be like the fake caste census that has been conducted in Bihar...A policy should be made based on the caste census...Congress will pass the caste census in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. We will demolish the barrier of 50 per cent reservations,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 

"Dalits, minorities and socially marginalised people comprise 90 per cent population of this country but they are not part of the system....This is the reason that we have been demanding caste census,” he stated. 

The Congress MP also said that the 50 per cent cap on reservations for people belonging to SCs, STs, and OBCs is not enough. "We will increase the cap for the benefit of the majority of the people. A few select organisations, including RSS and its people, industrial houses are running the country," he added. 

He also criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing its MPs from backward communities of claiming that they have been "confined in a cage." “Where is it written in this book (Constitution of India) that all of the wealth of India should only go into the hands of two to three people… In today's India, the MLAs and MPs have no power,” Gandhi said. 

“When I meet the BJP MPs who belong to the backward community, Dalits, tribals, they say that we have been put in a cage,” he added.

The Bihar caste-based survey, officially called the Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana, was released by the state government on October 2, 2023. The survey offered detailed data on the caste-wise population distribution across Bihar.