Haryana defeated caste census agenda, so should Maharashtra: Modi

The battle for Maharashtra heated up on Saturday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing the Congress’ Haryana poll defeat to urge the western state to follow suit.

“Haryana was the first to take the line — Ek hain to safe hain — and foil the Congress’ divisive agenda and conspiracy to fragment communities and weaken them. Now, Maharashtra should follow suit,” Modi said, renewing his attack on the Congress, which has been leading the demand for a caste census.

As the polling for Maharashtra (November 20) and Jharkhand (November 13 and 20) drew near, Modi asked SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes to stay united. “The Congress knows that the weaker the country, the stronger the party will be. It’s the Congress nature to divide people on caste lines. Since Independence, the Congress has never allowed the SC community to unite. They have fragmented the STs into various castes and they’ve never let the OBC people develop a unified identity,” Modi said while speaking in Akola and Nanded in Maharashtra.

The PM attacked rival Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition on four issues — “seeking to divide communities by pushing for a caste census; corruption; agrarian distress and insult to Dr BR Ambedkar, father of the Constitution”. Calling the MVA a “maha-ghotala (mega scamster) alliance, Modi said the Congress-ruled Karnataka and Telangana had become “ATMs of the party’s royal family”.

“Maharashtra must stay vigilant. We will not let Maharashtra become an ATM for the Maha-Aghadi’s mega scandals,” he said, accusing the Congress of mothering agrarian anxieties. He said past Congress-led governments in the state had failed to address farmers’ needs, particularly water issues and it was the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti government (BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) which was “revitalising irrigation projects by approving a major river-linking initiative to alleviate water scarcity challenges in Amravati, Akola and Nagpur.

Modi also questioned the Congress for “insulting BR Ambedkar” and asked if the Congress leaders had visited the five locations the BJP had developed as “panch teerath” to honour the memory of BR Ambedkar. “The royal family of the Congress has not even visited the Delhi memorial of Babasaheb whereas we have named India’s digital currency after him (Bhim app),” the PM said, repeating his “Ek hain to safe hain” slogan and his assurance that Article 370 would never be restored despite the Congress-NC alliance passing a resolution to this effect in the J&K Assembly.

The BJP seeks to retain Maharashtra after the alliance it leads suffered a major drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha poll where the opposition MVA bagged 30 of the 48 seats and the BJP was reduced to nine out of 28 it contested.

2011 caste census kept under wraps: Rajnath

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, speaking in poll-bound Jharkhand, said the 2011 socio-economic caste census under the UPA government had identified 46 lakh castes, sub-castes, gotras, “which was why the Congress did not release the report”