"I'm not interested in caste but in justice...": Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that he was not interested in caste but in justice, adding that it's his life's mission and not a "political issue."

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that he was not interested in caste but in justice, adding that it's his life's mission and not a "political issue." The Congress MP was speaking at 'Samajik Nyay Sammelan' organized here in Delhi.

"I am not interested in caste. I am interested in justice. It is not a political issue for me, it is my life's mission. While there can sometimes be a compromise on politics, there can never be any compromise on life mission," Rahul Gandhi said. He further said that Congress has always done revolutionary things like fighting for the country's freedom, bringing constitution and democracy, the Green Revolution, the White Revolution, bank nationalisation or abolishing the Privy Purses. "Similarly, the caste census will be another revolutionary measure," he said.

The Congress leader further said that after seventy years of independence, it was very important to assess where the country stands and what direction it should take from here. Gandhi said that the backwards, the Dalits, the Adivasis and the minorities together constitute about '90 per cent' of the country's population, and yet their representation in different sectors and institutions was nil or at best negligible.

"Take any institution, be it the media or the corporate houses, private hospitals, universities or even the judiciary, the representation from the "90 per cent" population was either nil or quite negligible," he said. Referring to the Prime Minister's criticism, Gandhi pointed out that he had not yet suggested any solution but the only way to identify the problem like an X-ray and still the national media and Prime Minister Modi had started accusing him of "dividing the people and the country".

"I don't think anybody should have any objection to an X-ray," he observed. He said, if you want to become a superpower and if you want to compete with countries like China, you can't do it without engaging the '90 per cent' population of the country which is still marginalised.

Pointing out how marginalised this section of the population was, which includes the Adivasis, he referred to the inauguration of the new parliament building. He said, ideally the president, who is the head of the state should have been inaugurating it, but she was not let to do that as she was an Adivasi. Similarly, he added, no Dalits, backwards or Adivasis could be seen at the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Gandhi said that including the caste census in the party's manifesto was the first step towards that direction. "Note it down, no power can stop caste census from taking place," he said, asserting, "It is not a political issue for me, but my life's mission". (ANI)

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