New Delhi: The Congress failed to respond to the aspirations of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), creating space for the BJP, Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said Thursday, conceding that his party “fell short” on the issue.
Addressing the Congress’s Lok Sabha MPs and Telangana leadership at Indira Bhavan, the party headquarters, Rahul said the party must be responsive to all communities moving forward, to send a message of fairness.
He qualified his remarks saying not everyone may agree with his personal observations on the party’s shortcomings, “but that’s what I feel”.
“I feel that when it came to Dalit, Adivasi, women’s issues, the Congress party was on track. And I am talking about the last 10-15 years. But I do feel that when it came to OBC issues, the Congress party’s understanding of OBC issues, the understanding of the challenges they were facing and the type of actions that the Congress party should have and could have taken, we fell short,” said Rahul.
“Maybe many people would not agree with me. Maybe many people will say, no, you are wrong. But this is a feeling I have that we allowed, we opened the space for the BJP because we were not responsive to the aspiration, to the desires of the OBCs. That’s what I feel,” he added.
Speaking before Rahul, Telangana CM A. Revanth Reddy gave a presentation on the Telangana Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste Survey 2024 to the leadership and the party’s MPs from across states.
In his speech, Rahul described the Telangana survey as a “milestone for social justice in the country, whether the BJP likes it or not”. The Congress has previously said that the Centre should adopt the ‘Telangana model’ in carrying out caste enumeration as part of the next decennial census.
On 30 April, the Centre had announced that caste enumeration would be included in the next decennial census. For the Congress, and particularly Rahul who made the demand for a nationwide caste census his political fulcrum, the Centre’s move had come as a vindication.
Later, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a notification saying that the next census will be held in 2027.
In his speech Thursday, Rahul also said that an education in English language was the “single biggest determinant of success of progress in India,” which he said was a finding thrown up by the Telangana survey.
He was essentially pushing back against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assertion at an event in June that “in our lifetime, we will see a society in which those speaking English will feel ashamed, that day is not far…I believe that the languages of our country are the ornament of our culture”.
Rahul said he was surprised by the finding in Telangana as he thought the ownership of land would be that determinant of progress, rather than English language.
“An English education is much more powerful in India today than an education in a regional language. I am not saying that Hindi is not important, regional languages are not important. They are very important. But what is determining progress in India today is English education, which means that we have to provide Hindi education, Tamil education, Kannada education. But right next to that has to be the English language,” he said.
The Congress MP said those in the BJP who run down English should be countered with one, simple question: “Which school or college do your children study in? Do they study in an English medium school?”
Adding, “Yes or no, and the answer will always be, they study in English medium school.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Less US & UK, more Bihar & Gujarat, Rahul 2.0 is on a grassroots sprint with a packed schedule
