Cong meet on census, Valley & N-bill
The top brass of the Congress, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi met here on Monday against the backdrop of three controversial issues; caste based census, tension in the Kashmir Valley and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010.
The Congress core group, headed by Mrs Gandhi met at a time when the party has yet take a formal stand on the caste-based census and decide how to bring normalcy to the Valley. Besides, the current mood in the Opposition is not to cooperate with the Centre in the passage of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill during the current session of Parliament.
Though the party is maintaining silence on the caste-based census, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, heading the GoM on inclusion of caste in census, earlier said almost all political parties had given their views to the GoM which would soon be meeting to deliberate on it.
Side-stepping a question whether the Congress has given its views, he remarked, “I represent the Congress. I am not out of the Congress.”
This meant that the senior leader could be articulating the Congress view before the GoM.
The group had sought views of all political parties by August 7. The main Opposition BJP has already supported the inclusion of caste in census, a move being vociferously advocated by parties like the SP, the RJD and the JD(U).
The meeting of the Congress core group last Friday was cancelled due to absence of Mrs Sonia Gandhi who was in the US on a personal visit. There have been differences in the Congress over the issue with party divided on caste lines with members from forward castes opposing the move and backward castes favouring it.
The BJP, however, favoured the move despite reservations expressed by the RSS.
A view in the party is that the Congress would have to go in for inclusion of caste in census due to the circumstances given the fact that the backward classes are electorally significant.
Besides, the party strategists recall that Congress lost ground heavily in the north in the wake of the Mandal Commission report.
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