'Waqf Act an assault on Constitution, freedom of religion': Rahul Gandhi at AICC session in Ahmedabad

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi called the contentious Waqf Act an "assault" on the Constitution and freedom of religion, on the second and final day of the All India Congress Committee meeting in Ahmedabad.
"Waqf Bill (now Act) was passed by the BJP few days back. It is an assault on freedom of religion, constitution," Gandhi, leader of opposition in

Lok Sabha

, said in his maiden public remarks on the issue.
The ex-Congress chief also brought up a now-deleted article in the Organiser, the mouthpiece of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
^{"Soon after (the Bill's passage), they (RSS) write in 'Organiser' they are going to attack the land of Christians, they will then go to Sikhs. So you don't think that you have not been attacked. We want every community, religion, language should get respect and place in the country. We want the country to belong to everyone," the Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli remarked.}

^{Gandhi and his sister, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were criticized for not participating in the Waqf Bill debate in Lok Sabha. Vadra also skipped the Ahmedabad meet, reportedly because she is abroad; the same reason was cited behind her absence from Lok Sabha.
Several petitions, including by political parties such as the Congress, have been moved in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf Act. The apex court is likely to take up the petitions next week.}
'PM Modi, RSS refused caste census'
Gandhi also recalled his Lok Sabha speech in which he had asserted a Congress-led government at the Centre would pass a law on caste census "right in front" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We took a revolutionary step of caste census in Telangana. A few months before that, I had asked PM Narendra Modi in the Parliament we should get a caste census done in the country. I wanted to know who had what share in this country and whether this country truly respected the tribal, Dalit, and backward communities," Gandhi stated.
"PM Modi and RSS clearly refused the caste census because they don't want to reveal the share that minorities get in this country. I told him that we will pass the caste census law in the Parliament right in front of you (PM Modi)," he added.