After Congress old-timer and a sitting member of its working committee, Anand Sharma, wrote to party president Mallikarjun Kharge questioning its campaign pitch around the promise of a nationwide caste census, the BJP accused the grand old party of ‘hypocrisy’.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of ‘disrespecting his predecessors’ by putting forward the demand for a countrywide caste census, as the idea was opposed by former Prime Ministers Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
“The Congress itself has exposed the Congress by showing the mirror to the Gandhi-Vadras and baring their real faces and hypocrisy. Their sole agenda, going into the elections, is to divide the country for a few votes. It’s an agenda they are going to people with to mine votes but one they will never commit themselves to fulfilling. Isn’t that what Anand Sharma cited (in his letter to Congress president Kharge)? The idea of a caste census was debunked by Pt. Nehru while the Mandal Commission (which recommended caste quota in government jobs and education) was roundly opposed by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Their slogan was ‘jaat par na paat par, mohar lagegi hath par’ (neither on caste nor religion, votes will be cast in favour of the Congress). This isn’t the first time Rahul Gandhi is being called out from within the Congress for taking a U-turn, showing hypocrisy, and disrespecting what his predecessors had preached,” the BJP spokesman said.