Congress playing fraud in name of caste census: Rajnath Singh

Condemning Congress' politics of falsehood, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday accused the Grand Old Party of misleading people on the issue of caste census and asked why the party did not conduct such an exercise during the 50 years of its rule in the country.

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Addressing an election rally in Khunti, the Defence Minister said in 2011 a caste and socio-economic census was conducted in the country and almost 46 lakh sub-castes, gotras and communities were counted.

"Those who conducted the survey, themselves decided against publishing the results due to the large number of castes," he said, pointing that the then social welfare department had revealed that there were over 1,200 SC and 750 ST, 2,500 OBC communities in the country at that time.

Claiming that the Congress was playing a fraud on people in the name of caste census, Rajnath Singh asked party President Mallikarjun Kharge to stop fooling people and instead share his party's blueprint for the welfare of the marginalised sections.