Patna, Sep 16 (IANS ) Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, Samrat Choudhary on Monday criticised senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, alleging that his "DNA is anti-reservation."
Choudhary further accused the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi of mocking Indian democracy while abroad and disrespecting the Constitution.
While speaking to the media in Patna, he claimed that LoP Gandhi's stance against reservation aligns with that of his maternal grandfather, late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“Pandit Nehru opposed reservation throughout his life and had written letters to chief ministers of various states during his tenure, urging them to oppose reservation in the country,” Choudhary said.
He further criticised the Gandhi family, claiming that late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, also did not support reservation.
He added that when the Mandal Commission was introduced, Rahul Gandhi’s father, late Rajiv Gandhi, opposed its recommendations in Parliament.
Choudhary stated, “The recent comments by Rahul Gandhi in the US have proven his anti-reservation stance. His DNA is anti-reservation. Congress governments in states like Karnataka and Telangana are giving reservation to Muslims but withdrawing quota from universities. It has exposed the real face of the Congress.”
He praised the electorate’s decision in the Lok Sabha elections, saying, “The people of the country have taken the right decision by supporting Narendra Modi and making him Prime Minister for the third time.”
LoP Gandhi, while interacting with the students and teachers of Georgetown University in Washington DC recently, stated that reservation might be reconsidered only when equal opportunities are guaranteed to everyone in India, which, according to him, is not currently the case.
Following his statement, several leaders of Bihar including Jitan Ram Manjhi, Ravishankar Prasad, Giriraj Singh, Umesh Kushwaha, Prashant Kishor and others sharply criticised him for his comment.
Kishor claimed that the LoP does not know what he will say at any given time.
During the Lok Sabha election campaign, he was roaming around the country and advocating for increasing the 50 per cent reservation cap and emphasised the need for a caste census in the country and now in the US he withdrew his own statement, Kishor said.
“Therefore, now what his thoughts and ideas on reservation are, only his fellow Congress leaders will be able to tell better,” Kishor said.