Hyderabad: BJP Rajya Sabha member K Laxman on Saturday asked why the Congress did not think of conducting a caste census when it was in power for over five decades.
Replying to a query as to why the BJP is adopting double standards as it supports categorisation of SCs, he said that it was the Nehru-Gandhi family which was in power for a long and sought to know why the Congress did not think of conducting a caste census then.
“Why they (Congress) are making this demand now, it is to provoke (people). We are not against any caste census. But, it needs scientific and thorough study on it,” Laxman, national president of BJP’s OBC Morcha, told reporters here.
Observing that there is diversity vis-a-vis various communities in the country, he said the Reddys of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are BCs in Karnataka. Similarly, Kammas of AP and Telangana are a backward class in Karnataka, he said.
The Reddys and Kammas come under Other Castes (OCs) in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Why did the Congress government in Karnataka not publish the census held in the state, he asked.
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Laxman, former president of Telangana BJP, also asked why the previous BRS government in Telangana did not publish the details of the ‘intensive household survey’ conducted in the state.
Is it an attempt of opposition parties to show the BJP in a bad light?
Laxman, a BJP Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, accused Congress and other opposition parties of resorting to divisive and appeasement politics in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
At a time when the BJP is working with the resolve of making the country a developed nation by 2047 with the slogan of ‘sab ka sath, sab ka vikas’, “the opposition is talking about caste census, Muslim appeasement and creating animosities and bringing a division,” he said.
Laxman also alleged that “Muslim appeasement is not a new thought, but it is in the DNA of Congress from the beginning”.
Elections to the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will be held on May 13.
The BJP is fighting the parliament elections in Telangana without any alliance.
