Dr Laxman urged the Telangana government to hold local-body elections by September 30, in line with Supreme Court directives, and demanded that BC reservations in these polls be set at 42 per cent. He also criticised the former BRS government for reducing BC reservations from 34 to 27 per cent during its tenure, calling it another grave injustice to the community.
Nalgonda: Dr K. Laxman, Rajya Sabha member and national president of the OBC Morcha, charged on Saturday that Congress governments, which governed India for 64 years, denied Backward Classes their rightful share by failing to conduct a caste census. Speaking at a round-table on “Caste Census: Future of OBCs and Social Justice” organised by BC groups in Nalgonda, he noted that no caste census has been undertaken since 1931, despite plans under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to carry one out in 1951. Dr Laxman held the Congress responsible for the resulting under-representation of BCs, whose reservation quotas should reflect their population.
He further accused the Telangana Congress government of artificially inflating BC numbers by including Muslims, who constitute roughly 12 per cent of the state’s population, within the BC category, thereby diluting genuine BC quotas. “The BJP supports reservations for economically disadvantaged minorities, but BC quotas must be adjusted to mirror their true demographic strength through a nationwide caste census,” he asserted. He dismissed recent calls for a caste census by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy as mere “crocodile tears,” praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to include a caste enumeration in the next national census while denouncing the state’s previous, “unscientific” exercise.
Dr Laxman urged the Telangana government to hold local-body elections by September 30, in line with Supreme Court directives, and demanded that BC reservations in these polls be set at 42 per cent. He also criticised the former BRS government for reducing BC reservations from 34 to 27 per cent during its tenure, calling it another grave injustice to the community.
