Implement Women’s Reservation Bill immediately, 100% regret we didn’t include OBC quota in Bill: Rahul

New Delhi: Former Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday once again demanded the immediate implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill by removing the clause of delimitation and census, and also said that it was regrettable that OBC quota within the Bill was not included by them.He also said that the Central government must hold a caste census.

Addressing a press conference here at party headquarters, Rahul Gandhi said, “Few days ago the Special Session of Parliament was announced and with a lot of fanfare we shifted from the old Parliament to the new Parliament building.”

“We were not aware of what was the main focus of the session. The Women’s Reservation Bill is great but we received two footnotes that census and delimitation need to be done before that. Both of these will take years. The truth is that the reservation can be implemented today…This is not a complicated matter but the government doesn’t want to do that,” the Congress leader said.

“Government has presented this before the country but it will be implemented 10 years from now. Nobody knows if this will even be implemented. This is a distraction tactic, diversion tactic,” the Congress leader said.

He said that he spoke about one institution in Parliament and officer who runs the government — cabinet secretary and secretary.

“If Prime Minister Narendra Modi works a lot for OBC then out of 90, only three are from the OBC community, why? I did an analysis from the budget. How much budget they control, OBC, tribal and Dalits. OBC officers control only 5 per cent of the budget,” he said.

Taking a swipe at the government, he said, “He talks about OBC and their pride. When I spoke, his response was interesting. They said in the Lok Sabha we have our representation. Is OBC population only 5 per cent. If it is true I am accepting and if not true I will find it out.”

He also said, “Lok Sabha is called the temple of democracy, whether they take any decision, do they participate in making laws, the answer is no.

“MPs are like statues in temples and they don’t have any power and they have no role to play in running the government,” he alleged.

He also said that the youth of the OBC community needs to understand the same.

“The census and delimitation should be removed. Women should get their rights,” Rahul Gandhi demanded, adding that caste census data should be made public which was carried by us.

“Also do a caste census. The Prime Minister needs to explain on the 90 officers of India and why only three are OBCs,” he added.

To a question if he regrets that Congress did not include OBC quota in the Bill, Rahul Gandhi said, “Yes, 100 per cent I regret that.”

–IANS