The Congress fell short in understanding the aspirations of and challenges being faced by the Other Backward Classes, which “opened up the space” for the Bharatiya Janata Party, said Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday.

Speaking at an event at the party headquarters, Gandhi said: “People may not agree with me, but when I feel that when it came to Dalit, Adivasi, women’s issues, the Congress was on track in the last 10 to 15 years.”

“However, when it came to OBC issues, the Congress’ understanding of the challenges they were facing and the type of actions the party should have and could have taken, we fell short,” he added. “Maybe many people will say, no, you are wrong. But this is a feeling I have that we allowed, we opened the space for the BJP because we were not responsive.”

His comment followed a presentation by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on the state’s Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste survey.

Released in February, the survey report showed that Backward Classes constituted 56.3% of the population in Telangana. The population of Backward Classes in absolute numbers in Telangana is 1.9 crore.

As per the door-to-door household survey conducted in November and December, Scheduled Castes comprised 17.4% of the population and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 10.4%. Other castes made up 15.7% of the population.

Muslims made up about 12.5% of the state’s population. Of this, Backward Classes Muslims accounted for 10.08 percentage points and Other Classes Muslims accounted for 2.4 percentage points.

On Thursday, Gandhi praised Reddy and other Congress leaders from the state, stating that they had exceeded his expectations in carrying out the caste survey.

“Not only did they do the caste census in the spirit it should have been done, I can say with certainty that the level of competence they have shown is a milestone for social justice in the country,” said Gandhi. “Whether the BJP likes it or not, it is going to define how the national caste census is done.”

The Opposition has for long been demanding a nationwide caste census, arguing that the exercise will help identify the true population of the country’s Other Backward Classes and other castes, in turn paving the way for policies such as expanded quotas.

The Union government stated in June that India will conduct its population census, which will include caste enumeration, in 2027.

Gandhi said on Thursday that it was pressure mounted by the Congress that had “forced” the BJP-led Union government to heed the demand of conducting a nationwide caste census.

“I know, just like all of you, that the BJP is not going to do the caste census in the right way,” said the Rae Bareli MP. “Because they cannot tell the people of India the true condition of OBCs, Dalits and even general castes.”

‘English most important factor in education for progress’

Gandhi also spoke about the importance of English education in the country and how it had become a determinant of “progress”.

“I am not saying Hindi and the regional languages are not important,” said Gandhi. “They are very important. But what is determining progress in India, is English. Which means, we need to provide Tamil, Telugu and Kannada education. But along with it, there should be English.”

His remark was in apparent reference to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comment in June that those who speak English in India will soon feel ashamed.

In a video shared by news channels, Shah was quoted as saying that the creation of a society in which those who speak English in India would feel ashamed was not far away.

“A complete India cannot be imagined with aadhi-adhuri [incomplete] foreign languages, that can only happen with Indianness, with Indian languages,” Shah reportedly said at a book launch event in New Delhi.

The comments had come against the backdrop of several state governments and regional parties accusing the Centre of imposing Hindi through the new National Education Policy’s three-language formula.

“You go and ask all the BJP people who say English must be eliminated, which school and college do your children study in?” said Gandhi on Thursday. “Do they study in an English-medium school? And the answer would always be that they do.”

He added: “So why should that opportunity not be given to the poorest, Dalit and Adivasi children?”