NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday fielded its prominent OBC faces to counter Congress’s resolution to undertake caste enumeration as part of the decennial census.
Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupendra Yadav recalled a long history of Congress’s opposition to OBC quota as they alleged that the party was yet again “lying and trying to mislead” people.
“I would like to ask Rahul Gandhi that when the recommendations of the Mandal Commission were made in the 90s, what was the stand taken by his father? He vehemently opposed it in Parliament. They were in power for so long. They never took up this responsibility. This is a tactic by the Congress to hide from the sin they committed in the past few days,” Pradhan said.
He said under the guise of caste census, Congress was trying to divide society and make political gains. “From independence to UPA-2, Congress opposed caste census. Rahul Gandhi should tell why Congress did not conduct a caste census when it was in power for decades?” Pradhan asked.
Asserting that Congress’s track record was poor on the issue and its guarantees had turned out to be lies, Yadav claimed the OBCs were with BJP. “This is one more lie of Congress. India is touching great heights in the world, so our OBC community is most proud of this. Therefore, I would like to tell Rahul Gandhi to stop the politics of lies, stop seeing false dreams and recognise the reality,” Yadav said.
He said the 1950s Kaka Kalelkar report on backward classes was suppressed by the Congress.