Is PM’s promise for Madiga sub-quota in T’gana just a jumla?, asks Congress

New Delhi: On a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Telangana, the Congress on Wednesday asked him to clear his stand on the caste census after he promised a sub-quota for the Madiga caste and wondered if that would be another of his "jumlas" (rhetoric).

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also asked where the promised rail coach factory at Kazipet was and why the prime minister failed to deliver the Bayyaram steel plant. "Today's questions for the PM as he heads to Telangana: Where is the rail coach factory at Kazipet? Why did the PM fail to deliver the Bayyaram Steel Plant and ITIR? In the absence of a Census or a Caste Census, is the PM's promise for a Madiga sub-quota just a jumla?," he asked in a post on X.

Ramesh claimed that the prime minister has recently started paying lip service to the cause of the Madiga community and their long-pending demand for a sub-quota. "However, the best he can promise is a 'panel' to look into the demand, which appears to have not meaningfully materialised in the five months since he first committed to it. At the same time, the Prime Minister has refused to endorse a socioeconomic caste census, which would actually yield facts about the socioeconomic standing of the Madiga community," he said.