Hyderabad:Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday announced that the Congress would give 42 per cent seats for Backward Classes candidates (BCs) in the upcoming local body elections, and challenged the BRS and the BJP to follow the suit if they were genuinely committed to the upliftment of the community.
Revanth Reddy made the announcement during a debate on the Caste Census report in the Assembly on Tuesday. The Assembly later passed a resolution approving the caste census conducted by the state government and urged the Centre to conduct a similar exercise across the country.
Initiating the debate, Revanth Reddy said, “For 75 years, India never counted its BCs, who have been feeling neglected. Rahul Gandhi’s slogan of ‘jitni abadi, utni hissedari (share as per numbers)’ and his demand for a caste census were ignored by the Centre. During his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Telangana, he promised that if the Congress comes to power, the government would conduct a caste survey and ensure political, employment, educational, and economic reservations. This survey acts as an X-ray of society, and we have kept that promise.”
The Chief Minister explained that the government had sent senior officials to Bihar and Karnataka to study their caste-based surveys and implement a robust model in Telangana. “We prepared a fool-proof plan and went ahead with the survey,” he said.
Calling the day a "red-letter day" in history, Revanth Reddy declared that social justice had taken a giant leap forward, making its progress “irreversible and unstoppable.” He expressed gratitude for the opportunity to initiate the debate and present the official report on the comprehensive caste survey in the Telangana Assembly.
Revanth Reddy criticised the BJP-led government at the Centre for not conducting a national census since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. He accused the BJP of deliberately delaying the census to deny rights to weaker sections of society.
“Why has the census process, which has been conducted regularly for 70 years since Independence, stopped after Modi became the Prime Minister? The caste census in Telangana is the only official survey of its kind in the state,” he said.
Revanth Reddy called upon opposition MLAs, who had not participated in the caste census, to provide their details, and said that despite years of delay, the Congress government remains committed to working for marginalised communities. “Inspired by AICC leader Rahul Gandhi’s vision that social justice demands proportional resource allocation, we have set a role model for the country,” he stated.
He said that while the caste survey has been completed in Telangana, it is only a matter of time before similar surveys are conducted nationwide. He said that the Congress has fulfilled its election promise of caste census within a year of coming to power. As per the Telangana caste survey, BCs account for 56.33 per cent of the state’s population.
Stating that the last caste census was conducted in India before Independence in 1931, Revanth Reddy highlighted that historically marginalised communities have long demanded enumeration to formulate effective policies.
“For any policy to be implemented, there must be data to support it. The data from the caste survey will be used to bring socio-political changes in the state,” he added.