Rahul: Will provide legal guarantee for MSP

Neeraj Mohan

New Delhi, March 6

The Congress on Wednesday promised to conduct a caste census if the party was voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It also promised to provide legal guarantee for the minimum support price on various crops.

“The caste census is the only solution and remedy of all the ills and problems and it will prove to be a revolutionary step in ensuring social and economic justice in the country,” senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said while addressing a public rally in Badnawar town in the tribal-dominated Dhar district in MP on the sidelines of ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’.

The Congress MP said, “Firstly, we will have to get an X-ray done for India. An X-ray is conducted when you break a bone in the body. Similarly, the caste census is an X-ray for India.” “The BJP calls the Adivasis, as Vanvasis with a design as it does not want them to come out of jungles to progress. The same is the plight of the Dalits, the backward classes and the poor among the general castes,” he said, adding that the caste census was the only remedy to address this injustice. “Madhya Pradesh has 24 per cent tribal population whereas this figure is eight per cent in the country…I want you to take out the list of the biggest companies in India and their owners…You will realise that not even one owner belongs to the Adivasi community. You can take out the list of the owners of various media companies too, the big anchors. In that too, you won’t find an Adivasi,” he added. He said it would be a revolutionary step towards seeking social and economic justice in the country. In his address, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said till the caste system was not completely abolished in the country, there would be no justice with the Dalits, the downtrodden and the tribal people.