A day after the Government released provisional data of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), the Congress on Saturday charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having “contempt for the poor” and alleged that his suit boot ki sarkar was only focussed on the rich.
Congress spokesperson Rajiv Gowda latched onto the SECC data, highlighting the alarming level of poverty in rural India and maintained that there was tremendous work to be done in villages and claimed that the Congress Governments in the past had made huge efforts in transforming rural India by bringing in programmes like Green Revolution, White Revolution and MGNREGA.
The Government data mainly focussed on social and economic conditions of rural India and did not dwell on the controversial caste factor ahead of the high-stake Bihar Assembly polls, scheduled for later this year, where caste data may play out controversially in the high-pitched campaign.
The Yadav trio — Mulayam Singh Yadav from the SP, lalu Prasad from the RJD and Sharad Yadav from the JD(U) — had in 2010 and 2011 raised the issue vociferously in and outside Parliament demanding that it should be held on the basis of caste to ascertain the number of people belonging to backward classes. These leaders strongly backed enumeration of caste in the SECC on the lines of the 1931 census.
On the similar lines, the Congress on Saturday favoured releasing caste-based data carried in SECC but advocated caution while doing so in view of social and political sensitivities associated with it.
“If the data is there, at some point of time it has to be released. Because when you look at the caste data, it gives you true information on how successful various programmes have been, and who is benefited or not. At some point of time, the data has to be released,” Gowda told the media here.
Drawing on the grim social-economic details revealed by SECC, Gowda claimed that MGNREGA had ensured social safety net for the poorest people in villages.
“In contrast, what we saw after the NDA came to power was Modi on the floor of the lok Sabha mocking the MGNREGA and calling it a monument of UPA and Congress failures.
He further charged the Government with “hiding and suppressing” a data by UNICEF which “reveals” that the Gujarat model of governance of Modi has been “disastrous” for the poor.
The UNICEF data, which has been used by the same Government for creating the Indradhanush programme is now being rejected on various flimsy grounds but the Economist Magazine has revealed why this Government is hesitant to reveal the UNICEF data or to accept it, the Congress leader said.
“It is because the data shows that the performance of Gujarat on various human development indicators during the 12 years of Modi as the Chief Minister was disastrous for the poor, women, children and tribals and everyone else.”
The aforesaid data — Rapid Survey of Children (RSOC) 2013-2014 — was commissioned by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry in association with UNICEF.