Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday (July 25, 2025) that it is his fault to not get caste census while his party remained in power, but now he has taken steps to rectify this mistake. He said that the issue of caste census is a political earthquake which has shook the political ground of the country.

Addressing the ‘OBC Partnership Justice Conference’ of the Congress, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said, ‘I have been doing politics since 2004. When I evaluate my evaluation, I find that if I did a good job, there is a shortage of somewhere… I should get good numbers. I should get good numbers on the issue of women, but if I look back, one thing looks clear that one thing was reduced. I made a mistake, that is that I did not do the way the OBC class (of the interests) was to be protected. The reason for this is that I did not understand your issues deeply at that time.

The former Congress president said, ‘It is easy to understand the difficulties of Dalits … The issues of tribals are also easily understood, but the difficulties or issues of OBCs do not look easily. I regret that if I had known more about your history and issues, I would have done caste census at the same time (staying in power of Congress). That time has passed, but it is my fault. … This is not the fault of the Congress, my fault.

Referring to the issue of caste census, he said, ‘This is a political earthquake, which has shaken the political ground of India. You have not shocked this, but the work is done. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, ‘The 21st century is the century of’ data ‘. (Narendra) Modi ji keeps speaking about data. Earlier, the country which used to have oil was considered powerful. … Today’s oil is data.

According to him, ‘data companies have … The data that has come to the Telangana government has no match. Today we can tell in Telangana in a minute how many OBCs and Dalits are in the management of all corporate groups of the state. Rahul Gandhi said, ‘You ask my sister (Priyanka Gandhi) that when I make up my mind for something, I back back or not …. I (from caste census) are not going to back down.’

He alleged that BJP and RSS have erased the history of OBC. The Congress leader said that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs are the productive power of this country, but they are not getting the results of this.

BJP press conference on caste census: The central government of BJP has decided to get caste census across the country. This decision has been taken under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On this occasion, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held a press conference. He said that this decision has not been taken suddenly, work has been going on for the last 11 years. Our aim is to benefit every section of the society. Social justice has always been the center of our policy and hence the OBC commission was given constitutional status.

On the BJP’s press conference, Dharmendra Pradhan insisted that this is the first time after India’s independence, when the central government has given in -principle approval to the caste census. This decision reflects the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are constantly trying to get their rights to the underprivileged. It was informed by the Home Minister about a year ago.

Nehru was opposed to ethnic reservation- Dharmendra Pradhan
Dharmendra Pradhan took a dig at the opposition and said that Nehru ji was opposed to ethnic reservation. For this, he also wrote a letter to the states. The BJP was part of the government at the time of implementation of Mandal Commission. The Congress did the work to stop this. Everyone knows what was Rajiv Gandhi’s attitude regarding Mandal Commission.

A scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi
On the question of abolishing the limit of 50% reservation, Dharmendra Pradhan rejected Rahul Gandhi’s response to the ethnic census. He said that Rahul Gandhi’s words should not be taken seriously. They do not even know the difference between survey and census. He further said that by reading the letters and statements of Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi, the Congress should apologize to the country.

Digital India pointed
Dharmendra Pradhan called the caste census a political ATM for some parties and said that Modi ji has closed this ATM by bringing a digital payment system. Bihar was also mentioned during the press conference. Dharmendra Pradhan told that when the caste survey was conducted in Bihar, the BJP supported it. He also referred to Karpoori Thakur and said that Jana Sangh also supported him.