Rahul Gandhi In Conclave 2023: After the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in both the Houses of Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has claimed on the ongoing OBC reservation controversy that the Congress government has already done the right thing for the OBC communities. Census has been conducted, the central government should release its data.
‘The Conclave 2023’ held in Delhi; Rahul Gandhi, who came to participate in the program, has claimed that the data of OBC community will actually be helpful in understanding the situation of India better.
He said, “I am surprised that out of 90 people who control the Government of India, only 3 are OBCs. These 3 people control 5% of the Indian budget. The remaining 95% is uncontrolled. Therefore, the figures of OBC community will show whether in reality these are 5% people or their number is more. We already have the data of OBC census. The government should release it. The Congress government had conducted the census.”
Describing his strategy if the ‘India’ coalition government is formed in the 2024 elections, he said that the present government is snatching power from the people and our government will make them stronger. Everyone will get equal and non-discriminatory opportunity for education, health and employment.
‘The issue of One Nation, One Election is an attempt to divert attention from the main problems’
The Government of India has formed a committee on ‘One Nation, One Election’. In response to a question asked in this regard, Rahul Gandhi said, “This is one of the many strategies of BJP to divert attention from the main issues of the country. In our country, parliamentary elections started simultaneously, but state elections are held on different dates because if someone is the Chief Minister, if after 2 years he feels that he is comfortable in conducting the elections, then he can get them done. It is obvious that any Chief Minister can conduct elections whenever he wants. That’s why there are different elections.”
After this, Rahul Gandhi was asked whether it would be practically possible to hold elections in many states simultaneously in a country like India where there are multi-parties? In response to this he said, “Look, the main issues in the country are something else. There is huge financial inequality between the rich and the poor in the country. There is huge unemployment. The main issues are discrimination against backward castes, OBCs and tribal communities. To divert attention from these, new issues are raised. Like Ramesh Bidhuri uses abusive words, there is talk of holding simultaneous elections, there is talk of changing the name of the country. These are all distracting issues. We understand this very well and will not let them (BJP) do this.”
What is ‘One Nation, One Election’?
Let us tell you that the Government of India has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former President Ramnath Kovind to conduct ‘One Nation, One Election’ i.e. simultaneous elections of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies in the country. Its first meeting has also been held on Saturday (23 September).