Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party’s focus on religious symbolism, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that while the BJP spoke of “Hindu Rashtra”, nearly 80% of the population has not benefited from its rule.
Addressing the public in Korba, Chhattisgarh during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Mr. Gandhi said the marginalised and backward classes who formed 74% of the population as well as the poor from the general castes who accounted for another 4 to 5% were being denied opportunities under the current regime. The former Congress president questioned the absence of these groups at the recent temple inauguration ceremony in Ayodhya, contrasting it with the presence of the rich and the influential.
“BJP talks about Hindu Rashtra. Seventy-four per cent are not getting anything, poor from the general castes are not getting anything. You tell me, at the Ram Mandir inauguration, did you see any poor, even one?”
