New Delhi [India]: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Monday passed a resolution for a nationwide caste-based census and to implement OBC quota within women’s quota once the party is elected to the power at the Centre in the next general elections.
The party, in its resolution, promised to conduct a nationwide Caste Census, implement OBC quota within women’s quota and bring in a law to remove the 50 per cent cap to ensure reservation for OBCs, SCs and STs in line with the commensurate share of the population once it comes to power at the Centre.
“It will conduct a nationwide caste census as part of the normal decadal census which was due in 2021, implement the 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, ensuring adequate representation for women belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and including OBCs as well,” the Congress said.
The resolution for the same was passed in the CWC meeting, the highest decision-making body of the Congress party which was chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by CCP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, chief ministers Bhupesh Baghel, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Ashok Gehlot, Siddaramaiah and many others.
The CWC welcomed the release of the caste survey conducted by the Bihar government and said that the disparity between representation and share in population revealed by the final figures of the survey highlights the urgent need to take effective steps to ensure social justice.
“The CWC also welcomes the objective of the Justice Rohini Commission of sub-categorisation within OBCs, but underlines that it will remain incomplete without detailed data on the socio-economic position of various communities, which can be obtained either from the still unreleased data from the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census or a fresh Caste Census,” it said.
The Congress further said that the Modi government has ‘cheated’ the OBC communities and other deprived sections of the country by not releasing the data of the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census and not carrying out a fresh Caste Census.
“It has also failed in its Constitutional duty by inordinately postponing the decadal Census that ought to have been conducted in 2021 or soon thereafter,” it added.
It also said that “the unnecessary obstacles of Census and delimitation imposed by the Modi government will be removed”.
It also reiterated its long-standing support for the rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity and respect.
“The CWC expresses its dismay and anguish on the war that has broken out in the Middle East where over a thousand people have been killed in the last two days. The CWC reiterates its long-standing support for the rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity and respect,” the resolution passed by the Congress said.
It further said that the CWC calls for an “immediate cease-fire and for negotiations” to begin on all outstanding issues including the imperative issues that have given rise to the present conflict.
CWC also expressed its deepest condolences to the people of Sikkim and of the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong hills on the unprecedented floods and the tragic loss of many lives, including personnel of the Indian armed forces.
“The CWC calls on the Union government to provide all necessary assistance to Sikkim and the hill regions in the north of West Bengal.
Reacting to the Delhi Police’s raid at the Newsclick, the CWC said, “It said that the conspiracy theories floated by the government only exposes its own monumental hypocrisy in accepting donations from Chinese companies to PM CARES Fund and investments from China’s government-owned companies, its inability to control the zooming imports from China, and worst of all the Prime Minister’s clean chit to China on June 19, 2020, when he denied all Chinese transgressions at our border.”
The CWC also expressed its deep anguish over the collapse of the constitutional government and the continuing humanitarian tragedy in Manipur.
“Even after more than five months, the Prime Minister has totally abandoned the people of Manipur, and demanded for the removal of the Chief Minister and imposition of the President’s Rule in the northeastern state,” it said.
The resolution also hit out at the Prime Minister and the BJP for ‘degrading’ the political discourse to such a level that official posters are being made to incite and provoke violence against former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, similar to the one commissioned by Nathuram Godse against Mahatma Gandhi and senior Congress leaders of the freedom movement.
“The CWC observes that the frequency of these attacks by the Modi government will only increase in the run-up to the five state elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the people will no longer be intimidated by these tactics,” it said.
The CWC in its resolution noted the recent RBI data which shows that net financial assets of Indian households in 2022-23 had fallen to 5.1 per cent which is a nearly five-decade low.
The CWC also urged all its members and supporters to fight the upcoming elections to state legislative assemblies and to the Lok Sabha with a unity of purpose, dedication and determination.
In his address, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge levelled allegations on Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking the Congress with “lies and falsehood” and urged party members to build a counter-narrative.
Kharge also criticised PM Modi for not visiting violence-hit Manipur as the latter continues his visits to various states ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections.
“The Prime Minister’s absence in Manipur stands in sharp contrast to his frequent visits to the election-going states. His baseless attacks filled with lies and falsehoods on the Congress party will only increase in the coming days. It is essential that we counter these falsehoods and create our own counter-narrative,” Kharge said.
