Rahul Gandhi's another big poll promise: 'Congress will conduct wealth redistribution survey if voted to power'

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the party, if voted to power, will conduct a financial and institutional survey to ascertain the distribution of wealth among the people in the country. He said the survey will be conducted apart from a nationwide caste census that the party has promised.

"We will first conduct a nationwide caste census to determine how many people belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and minorities. After that, we will conduct a financial and institutional survey in a historic step to ascertain the distribution of wealth," he said while addressing a public rally in Hyderabad.

Underlining that the party will ensure representation of all communities in all sectors, Gandhi said the Congress will ensure that it will give the rightful share of the people. He asserted that SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities comprised 90 per cent of the total population. "But, you won't see them in jobs. The truth is that this 90 per cent of the population does not have a share at all," he said.

"There are 90 IAS officers who run the country's administration. But only three of them are OBCs, one Adivasi and three Dalits," he added. 

The Congress on Friday released its manifesto in which it promised to conduct a caste census and other measures to strengthen the representation of OBCs in the country.

The Congress in its manifesto has promised the right to apprenticeship, a legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs, a nationwide caste census and scrapping of the Agnipath scheme.

A day after the manifesto was released, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Congress' poll manifesto was more appropriate for elections in neighbouring Pakistan than for India. He said the document was targeted at dividing the society to come to power. "This is politics of appeasement and we condemn it. The manifesto feels like it is not for elections in Bharat but for Pakistan," Sarma said on the sidelines of an election rally in Jorhat, Assam.