Union Minister Bhupender Yadav slams Congress over Karnataka caste survey, calls it 'political cover-up'

"The reason India was considered a fragile economy in 2014 was due to the Congress party's misuse of taxpayers' money through corruption and broke their trust. They must answer how Rs 165 crore was spent when Congress itself is now questioning the accuracy of that data. Who will take responsibility for that expenditure? Either they were simply travelling, as they often do," said Yadav.

"Congress is repeating its old patterns, and we demand accountability for Karnataka's costly exercise. Their re-survey is nothing more than a political cover-up," said Yadav.

Union Minister Bhupender Yadav also accused the Congress party, accusing it of consistently betraying the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and reducing social justice to a mere political slogan.

"The OBC community has always been betrayed by the Congress. If the Congress had genuine intent, it would have formed a new commission after scrapping the Kaka Kalelkar Commission... Instead, they dismissed the commission's report and continued to rule... Later, when the Mandal Commission was constituted and the Supreme Court upheld its legality, the Congress worked to weaken the OBC Commission,"

"Congress has never stood with the poor, OBCs, or SC/ST communities. Their history shows a pattern of neglect. Even now, their actions in Karnataka expose their hypocrisy -- Rahul Gandhi calls the state an ideal model, yet the timing and contradictions around the caste survey re-enumeration prove that social justice is just a showpiece for them," he added.

Yadav also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing the long-standing issue of reservations in admissions to central schools and credited the Modi government's economic initiatives with lifting crores of people out of poverty.

"Misleading the OBC community has been Congress's policy; delivering justice to them has never been their intent," Yadav said, reiterating the BJP's commitment to inclusive welfare and empowerment.

This comes after Siddaramaiah earlier said that they accepted the suggestion made by top Congress leadership to re-enumerate the case census data.

"Discussions were held regarding the caste census as concerns were raised by some organisations, religious heads, and even a few ministers. The report submitted on the caste census has been accepted in principle. There is an agreement that a caste enumeration should be conducted. We have also agreed to this," he said. (ANI)