KT Rama Rao slams Congress over caste census, demands resurvey
After a meeting with BRS BC leaders, Rama Rao condemned the Congress for reneging on its pre-election promise of 42 per cent reservations for BCs
Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Congress government, charging it with manipulating the caste census to reduce the population of Backward Classes (BCs) by 5.5 per cent.
Calling the survey unscientific and irrelevant, he demanded an immediate resurvey and an apology from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for his deliberate attempt to betray BCs in Telangana.
Speaking to the media at Telangana Bhavan after a meeting with BRS BC leaders here, Rama Rao condemned the Congress for reneging on its pre-election promise of 42 per cent reservations for BCs.
“Congress has played a cruel joke on BCs. It has slashed their population figures and shattered their hopes of welfare benefits, ration cards, house allotments, and government contracts, turning the entire caste census into a scrap of paper.
This is an act of deception, and no BC child will accept it,” he said, adding that the most vulnerable MBC and BC families were now living in fear of losing their rightful share in welfare programmes, education and job opportunities.
The BRS had raised the issue in the Legislative Council and the Assembly, with its leaders S Madhusudana Chari and Talasani Srinivas Yadav leading the charge respectively, demanding a scientific resurvey. Taking a dig at the Congress leadership, Rama Rao slamed the Congress government for hypocrisy.
“Instead of answering for their failures, they are attacking the comprehensive household survey conducted under former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao‘s leadership,” he said, also tearing into the Congress for failing to honour its BC declaration at Kamareddy, particularly its promise of 42 per cent reservations.
“Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was brought here and made to say that they would allocate Rs.1 lakh crore for BCs and introduce a BC sub-plan. They claimed 42 per cent of government contracts would go to BCs and promised new corporations for BC castes with Rs 50 crore each. What happened? Not even 50 paise has been given,” he said. Rama Rao also pointed out the Congress’s broken promise of giving 34 Assembly seats to BCs.
“They gave only 19 seats to BCs out of which five were in the Old City. Meanwhile, BRS gave 34 seats to BCs without making such grand claims, apart from six MP tickets i.e. half of the general category seats,” he added.
He lambasted Revanth Reddy for erasing 22 lakh BCs from census records, terming it a calculated move to deny them their rightful share in government schemes. “Even a Congress MLC called the caste census a scrap of paper. If the government is serious, let them order a resurvey immediately,” he demanded.
The BRS working president announced a Statewide campaign to expose Congress’s deceit. Starting from Monday, party leaders will mobilise people at the constituency, mandal, and district headquarters across the State. “We will not rest until BCs get justice,” he said, warning that if the Congress continued its stubborn stance, the BRS would take the fight to the local body elections and ensure that the ruling party paid for its betrayal.
The party would chalk out its next steps with party president Chandrashekhar Rao and intensify its campaign in the coming days, until Congress delivers on its promises to BCs, he said, challenging Congress and BJP to amend the Constitution to ensure justice for BCs, citing former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi‘s past amendments to abolish the Mulki Rules in Telangana. “If Modi and Rahul Gandhi can sit together, they can easily amend the Constitution for BCs before they finish their tea,” he said.
