New Delhil: Highlighting the Congress’ resolve to achieve social justice, Rahul Gandhi Thursday said the party’s message to the Bahujans is clear that they must support it on issues related to their future and strengthen its hands.
His remarks came a day after the Congress said it remains steadfast in its commitment to enact a central law for the SC/ST sub-plan and guarantee budgetary allocations in accordance with their population.
The party also asserted that the fundamental guarantee given under Article 15(5), introduced by the Congress January 20, 2006, of reservation for OBCs, SCs and STs in private educational institutions must be implemented without delay.
It said the constitutionally guaranteed foundation of social justice can only be strengthened and carried forward by a nationwide caste census.
The Congress made the assertions in its ‘Nyaypath’ resolution adopted at the AICC session held here on the banks of the Sabarmati river.
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, “Yesterday, at the AICC’s Ahmedabad session ‘Nyaypath’, Congress has taken three historic resolutions to strengthen social justice by giving a share to the Bahujans of the country.
“We will bring a national law and abolish the 50% limit on reservation. We will give legal shape to the SC/ST Sub Plan by making a central law and will give a share in the budget to these sections on the basis of their population. We will implement the right to reservation in private educational institutions for SC, ST and OBC as prescribed in Article 15(5) of the Constitution,” he said.
“Our message to the Bahujans of the country is clear – support us on these issues related to your future, strengthen our hands… because, ‘haath badlega haalat, ‘” Gandhi said, referring to the Congress’ election symbol of hand.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, among other senior leaders, participated in the session themed “Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan aur Sangharsh”.
After day-long deliberations, the resolution was adopted with a show of hands.
The Congress dedicated a section in the resolution on social justice, asserting that it forms its “ideological core”.
PTI
