Ensuring social justice is Congress’ ideological commitment, not merely a poll issue: Kharge

“This is not only a fight for social justice but also a fight to protect the soul of the Constitution,” Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

A caste census is not a mere statistical exercise but a “moral obligation” of Indian democracy, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Friday (May 23, 2025) as he urged party spokespersons to fearlessly take the message of social justice to the people.

Mr. Kharge was virtually addressing a workshop for the Congress’ national and state-level spokespersons, while former party chief and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held closed-door interactions with them.

The Congress chief urged his colleagues to treat social justice as an ideological commitment and not an election issue. He said that it was the responsibility of the spokespersons to take the issue to the grassroots and create awareness about it among the masses.

Protecting the Constitution

“This is not only a fight for social justice but also a fight to protect the soul of the Constitution. I appeal to you not to consider this campaign just an election issue, it is our ideological commitment. Today’s dialogue is proof of our unity in this direction,” Mr. Kharge said in his video message.

Terming the party spokespersons as the voice of “our thoughts”, the Congress chief said that as the country is becoming aware of the upcoming caste census, “it is our responsibility to take this topic to the public with facts, with sensitivity, and without fear”.

Mr. Kharge said the issue of a caste census is not new, as the Congress has constantly raised it, in its manifestos and in Parliament. He himself had written a letter to the Prime Minister in April 2023, making it clear that “until we have the correct data, no government can claim that it is providing justice to everyone”.

Not just statistics

“Today we have to ask, what is the participation of [other backward class] OBC, Dalit and Adivasi communities in the power structures of the country? Are they represented in proportion to their population in the media, bureaucracy, judiciary, corporate sector and higher education institutions? If not, what is the reason for this? And what is the solution? The solution is to bring out the truth, make the data public, and then rebuild policies. This is why we consider caste census not just a statistical exercise but a moral obligation of Indian democracy,” he said.

The Congress chief also reiterated the party’s stance on implementing Article 15 (5) of the Constitution to ensure that OBC, Dalit and Adivasi students also get reservation in private educational institutions, hailing the Telangana model in this regard.