Rahul Gandhi vows to inflict 'ideological defeat' on BJP-RSS in 'revolutionary' Bihar

Patna: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday vowed to inflict an 'ideological defeat" on the BJP-RSS combine in Bihar, a "land of revolution" where assembly elections were due later this year.

Gandhi, who was on his first visit to the state after last year's Lok Sabha polls, addressed party workers at the historical Sadaqat Ashram, shortly after delivering a speech at a 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan'.

"The nation is witnessing a fight between Samvidhan and Manuvad," said Gandhi, who also claimed that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent statement that the country got "true Independence" only after the consecration of Ram temple at Ayodhya last year was a virtual "disowning of the Constitution".

"Bhagwat implies that he does not believe that Independence was achieved in 1947, and does not believe in the Constitution. In a way, he wants to say the Ganges does not originate at the Gangotri," the former Congress president claimed.

"We must remember the fight with the BJP-RSS combine that stands for violence and hatred is an ideological one," he alleged.

Congress workers must fight against the RSS and the BJP ideologically day and night, Gandhi said.

"Bihar is going to the next big election in the country. It is a land of revolution (Krantikari Pradesh). Congress workers, and the INDIA bloc at large, must resolve to inflict an ideological defeat on them," he said.

In an apparent reference to the ongoing row over BPSC exams, he said Bihar had become "a centre of question paper leaks" even as he lamented the "high rate of unemployment which had converted the state into a factory of labourers".

Calling workers of his party "lions" (babbar sher), Gandhi rued that the Congress was facing several odds with the Election Commission allegedly not addressing its concerns.

"In Maharashtra assembly polls, nearly one crore voters who had voted in the Lok Sabha elections did not exercise their franchise. We have urged the EC to provide us with the voters' list of both elections so that we can identify who were these voters. But the EC is not obliging us," alleged Gandhi.

He also attacked the Narendra Modi government for "enabling concentration of wealth and power", while pointing out that the problem lay in the fact that "Dalits, OBCs and the minorities may have got political representation, but were not empowered further".

"Look at the management teams of top 500 companies. You will hardly find a person from these deprived sections. The same is the case with the media, a reason why you hardly find discourses on plight of farmers and the unemployment," said Gandhi.

Alleging that the budget is an exercise carried out by about "90 secretaries to the Government of India", the Congress leader also claimed, "I have studied their profiles. One could argue that if the budgetary allocation is Rs 100, the numerically powerful OBCs can make decisions for no more than Rs 5. The situation is even more pathetic if we talk about Dalits and tribals." At the 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan', in which several social organisations took part, the crowds asked Gandhi if he had a solution to the problem.

He replied, "Yes, that is why I am here. The answer lies in the caste census. We are going to push it even if my party has to pay a price politically. I have said this to PM Modi on the floor of Parliament. And I must make it clear, the caste census we are pressing for shall not be a fake exercise like the one conducted in Bihar".

The allusion was to the "caste survey" ordered by the Nitish Kumar government, the findings of which were, incidentally, made public while the Congress was sharing power in the state.

Gandhi said, "We will not be stopping at the caste census which we consider akin to an X-ray, or an MRI. Once the disease is diagnosed, the treatment becomes easy. Likewise, once it is known exactly how much representation social groups enjoy in different fields, with respect to their population, it will enable us to set things right".