There is no love lost among the INDIA bloc partners, as Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav fired a fresh salvo against the Congress, questioning why the previous Congress-led governments did not conduct a caste census when they were in power.
Yadav’s comment highlights the differences between the two parties that are part of the mega Opposition front, seeking to put up a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Akhilesh Yadav while campaigning for the Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections said that previous Congress governments did not act on this due to their faulty policies. He taunted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his ‘X-ray’ remark over the caste census demand. At a rally in Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his call for caste census and termed the exercise an ‘X-ray’ that would give details of various communities in the country. Asked about this, Yadav said the Congress’s demand for a caste census was a ‘miracle’.
“X-ray was necessary at that time. Now, we have MRI and CT scans. The disease has already spread. If this problem had been solved back then, such a gap wouldn't exist in society today,” he said.
“The biggest miracle is the Congress is also talking about caste census. Those who are talking about X-rays are the same people who stopped the caste census after Independence,” he quipped.
Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Congress for not conducting caste census after India attained independence. “When Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav), Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and parties from South India raised the demand in Lok Sabha, the Congress refused to accept it,” he said.
“Why do they want to conduct caste census today? Because they know that their traditional vote bank is not with them. But the backward classes, Dalit and adivasis know that Congress had betrayed them after Independence,” he added.
Lately, Akhilesh Yadav has been training his guns on the Congress, asserting that the grand old party did not wish to ally with his outfit after their relations soured over seat-sharing for the November 17 Madhya Pradesh elections.
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that the Congress did not implement the Mandal Commission recommendations and had opposed the caste census.
In another rally he said that neither Congress nor BJP had done anything for the poor and farmers when they were in power in the state. A poster war had also erupted between the two parties after a poster claiming Akhilesh Yadav as the country’s ‘future prime minister’ was put up outside a Samajwadi Party office. Soon after, a similar poster describing Rahul Gandhi as the ‘2024 prime minister’ surfaced outside a Congress office in Lucknow.
Caste census has become a major political issue with the Opposition getting more vocal over it ahead of the general elections next year. Even the BJP, which earlier opposed a national caste census, has now hinted at softening its stand. Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said BJP never opposed the idea of a caste census, but would take a decision after extensive consultations. The Bihar government last week tabled the full report of its contentious state-wide caste survey. Incidentally, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, another key contender in the INDIA bloc, had blocked a call for caste census by her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar at a meeting of Opposition parties in Mumbai earlier this year.