Gehlot punctures BJP’s campaign to paint Rahul anti-OBC

The Congress on Sunday deployed two of its heavyweight leaders-Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and veteran leader Jairam Ramesh-to punch holes into BJP's claim that Rahul Gandhi had insulted the OBC community in his speech mentioning the Modi surname, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress on Sunday countered BJP’s campaign that Rahul Gandhi is anti-OBC by highlighting the pro-community steps taken during the previous Congress governments and deploying OBC chief ministers to take on the saffron party.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot addressed party workers at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Raj Ghat in New Delhi and slammed the BJP for playing up the OBC card to malign Rahul Gandhi.

“BJP chief JP Nadda has an illusion. Therefore, he has announced to launch a campaign from April 6 that Rahul insulted OBC leaders. Are those who ran away, Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi OBCs? The BJP is trying to save the thieves. What the Congress has given to OBCs, no one can even think of it. They want to run a campaign to mislead the OBCs. Am I not from the OBC community? I was made the Chief Minister for the third time by my leader Sonia Gandhi. I am the only MLA in the Assembly from my community Saini-Mali. What can be a bigger message than this? Is Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel not an OBC? How can they even say such things,” said Gehlot.

Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh listed the various welfare steps taken by the party governments earlier for the OBCs. “There is a difference in what the BJP says and does. In 1992, a Congress government implemented the Mandal Commission report, and in 2006 a Congress government made provision for OBC reservation in higher education. In 2011-12, a Congress government conducted a caste census involving around 25 crore households. The BJP has blocked the caste census,” Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said.

The core of the new BJP campaign, to be rolled out across the country in April, is that Rahul Gandhi had insulted the entire OBC community when he said in 2019 how come the surname of all thieves like Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi was Modi. The saffron party hopes to mobilize the crucial OBC community votes through the campaign ahead of the 2024 national elections and key Assembly polls in 2023, namely Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.

In fact, all the political parties, including the Congress, are also trying to woo the OBC community votes to score high in the coming electoral battles. Many of them, including Congress, RJD, JD(U), and SP have been demanding the central government to order a fresh OBC caste census to determine the exact numbers of the community and pass on the various government welfare benefits to them.

Rahul’s statement made in 2029 led to the filing of a criminal defamation case against him in a Surat court which sentenced him to two years on March 23. The complainant BJP MLA Purnesh Modi had alleged that Rahul had insulted the entire Modi community though the Congress leader had argued that he had only mentioned a few specific names. The Lok Sabha secretariat disqualified Rahul as a member of the House on March 24 based on the court order.

Soon after, BJP chief JP Nadda alleged that Rahul’s comments were against the OBCs. Since then, the Congress vs BJP battle took a new turn with both the grand old party and the saffron party planning nationwide public outreach programs to expose each other and influence the OBC segments, which form the bulk of the population.

When Rahul addressed a presser in the party headquarters on March 25, the party managers were careful to ensure that the former party chief was flanked by two sitting chief ministers Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh on the dais.