Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi cautions on endorsing ‘population based rights’

New Delhi [India]: Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a senior advocate, Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson of the Congress, has taken a divergent line from his party’s position over population based rights saying that people supporting the slogan ‘jitni abadi utna haq’ have to first completely understand the ‘consequences’ of it.

In a post on X, Singhvi said that the idea of ‘the greater the population, the greater the rights’ will eventually culminate into ‘majoritarianism’.

“Equality of opportunity is never the same as equality of outcomes. People endorsing #jitniabadiutnahaq have to first completely understand the consequences of it. It will eventually culminate into majoritarianism,” he said in a post on X.

Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi has endorsed the slogan of ‘Jitni abadi utna Haq’ saying that that this was a pledge of the Congress.

On Monday after the Bihar state government released the data from its caste based survey, Rahul Gandhi once again gave the call for population based rights.

“The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC SC ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India’s budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. ‘Jitni Abadi Utna Haq’ – this is our pledge,” Rahul Gandhi posted on ‘X’ on Monday.

The Bihar government on Monday released caste survey data, with the figures that have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) together account for 63 per cent of the state’s population.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed the  Congress over the ‘Jitni aabadi utna haq’ remark and said that ‘mere liye gareeb sabse badi abaadi hai’ (for me, the biggest population is poor).

“Since yesterday, Congress leaders are saying ‘jitni aabadi utna haq’, mere liye gareeb sabse badi abaadi hai (but for me the biggest population is poor). Poor have first priority to resource this is my only aim,” PM Modi said addressing a rally in the poll-bound state.

Continuing his attack against the Congress, the Prime Minister said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to say that the minority has the first right to the country’s resources and that Muslims have the right but Congress is saying something else.

“I was wondering what the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be thinking. He used to say that the minority has the first right to the country’s resources and that Muslims have the right. But now Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right to the country’s resources.

So now do they (Congress) want to decrease the rights of the minority? Do they want to remove the minorities? So, should the Hindus, who have the largest population, come forward and take all their rights?

According to the data released by Bihar, Scheduled Castes make up 19.65 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent of the population of the state. The data also said that the Hindus comprise 81.99 per cent of the population, Muslims 17.7 per cent, Christians 0.05 per cent, Sikhs 0.01 per cent, Buddhists 0.08 per cent and other religions 0.12 per cent.

The data said that Yadavs, the OBC group is the largest and accounts for 14.27 per cent of the state’s population. Kushwaha and Kurmi communities form 4.27 per cent and 2.87 per cent of the population, the caste survey said. Bhumihars constitute 2.86 per cent of the population, Brahmins 3.66 per cent, Kurmis 2.87 per cent, and Musahars 3 per cent.

The numbers stand in contrast to the quantum of reservation, which is 27 per cent that the OBC population gets in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
Notably, the total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.