NEW DELHI: Hitting back at the BJP amid the row on the issue of wealth redistribution, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that those who call themselves “deshbhakt” are scared of the ‘X-ray’ of caste census. But, no force can stop it, and his life mission is to secure justice for 90 percent of the population.
Addressing the ‘Samajik Nyay Sammelan’ in New Delhi, he said it is his life mission to ensure justice for the 90 percent of the population against whom injustice has been mated out.
Rahul Gandhi said: “I am not interested in caste but in ‘nyay’ (justice). What I am saying is gross injustice is being meted out to 90 percent of the population. I have not said we will take any action on that. I just said, Let us find out how much injustice is being done. There should be no objection to that. If you get injured and I say get an X-ray done, no one should object to that.”
“The first thing we would do after the formation of our government is hold a caste census. I understand this is not a political issue for me. This is my life’s mission. I guarantee, no force can stop the caste census. The more it is stopped, the more it will return with a bigger force,” he added.
There is a difference between life missions and politics, as one can compromise in politics but not in life missions, he added.
Gandhi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has panicked after seeing his party’s (Congress) “revolutionary manifesto,” which talks about the ‘X-ray’ and the income inequality created by the Modi government.
The Congress has maintained that its manifesto speaks of a socioeconomic caste census and not about “redistribution” of wealth.
‘There is not a single OBC, Dalit or tribal anchor in media industry’
Taking a jibe at the media for dubbing him a “non-serious” politician in the past, Gandhi cited his involvement with the MGNREG Scheme, the Bhatta Parsaul movement, and the Land Acquisition Bill, among others, and said for the media, all this was “non-serious while talking about Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Virat Kohli was serious.”
“Anybody who talks of the 90 percent of the population is dubbed non-serious,” he said, adding that when he looked into the stakeholders in the media industry, he couldn’t find a single OBC, Dalit, or tribal anchor.
The same was the case with the judiciary; out of 650 high court judges, only 100 belonged to 90 percent of the population. Gandhi said.
“What does a deshbhakt want? A deshbhakt wants justice in the country. A deshbhakt wants India to move forward and become a superpower. So if you want to become a superpower and move ahead of China, you have to use the strength of 90 percent of the population. Those who call themselves ‘deshbhakt’ are scared of X-ray,” he said.
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