Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday promised a nationwide caste census and removal of the 50% cap on reservation if the INDIA bloc forms the government at the Centre.

“There will be no reduction in the reservation of Dalits and Adivasis. I am giving you a guarantee that the backward sections of society will get their rights. This is the biggest issue – social and economic injustice,” Gandhi further said.

Gandhi said that PM Modi used to say that he is an OBC but when the demand for a caste census was made, he stated that there are only two castes – the rich and the poor. “When the time came to give rights to OBCs, Dalits, tribals, Modi ji says there are no castes, and when it is time to get votes, he says he is an OBC,” the Congress leader said.

Later, PM Modi, responding to a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, referred to himself and said that while Congress leaders keep counting the number of OBCs in the government, they fail to see the biggest OBC.

Reacting to Modi’s remarks, Gandhi said, “Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was often saying that there are only two castes in the country – rich and poor, but today in Parliament he described himself as the ‘biggest OBC’. It is important to change this mentality of considering someone small and someone big.”

“Be it OBCs, Dalits or tribals, economic and social justice cannot be provided to them without census. If Modi ji talks so much about so many things, then why is he afraid of census?” Gandhi added.