Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit out at the mainstream media for telecasting billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s pre-wedding festivities, and accused it of not highlighting issues like farmers’ protest, unemployment, and inflation.
The former Congress president’s remarks came as he was addressing a crowd on the third day of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Madhya Pradesh.
Saying that the biggest issues in the country are unemployment, inflation and corruption, Mr. Gandhi said, “Why is the Ambani ji’s wedding being discussed in the media all day long? Someone explain this to me.”
“When you watch the TV [news] you will see Bollywood stars, they will talk about cricket sometimes. But they will not talk about your issues because you have no control over the media,” Mr. Gandhi said, reiterating his stance that the OBCs, Dalits and tribals do not have proper representation across sectors.
Mr. Gandhi said that the media is not for the poor, farmers and the underprivileged as it is owned by big industrialists.
Throughout the yatra in the State, Mr. Gandhi continues to reiterate his promise of conducting a nationwide caste census, which he claims is a tool to provide proper representation to the OBCs, Dalits, and tribals.
Mr. Gandhi resumed his march from M.P.’s Shivpuri on Monday morning, after a break on Sunday when he went to Patna to attend a rally of Mahagathbandhan.
From Shivpuri, the yatra also travelled through Guna, the bastion of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was recently announced as the BJP’s candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Scindia had unsuccessfully contested from the seat on a Congress ticket in 2019, before switching over to the BJP in March, 2020 and toppling the State’s Congress government.
Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Scindia used to be considered close friends when the latter was in Congress.
While Mr. Gandhi did not make any remarks on his former friend, Jairam Ramesh, Congress’ general secretary in-charge communications, said that Mr. Scindia will meet the same fate as he did in the 2019 election.
“The way he had lost the election in 2019, the same will happen in 2024 [to him],” Mr. Ramesh said, speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the yatra.
Mr. Gandhi’s yatra, that entered the State on March 2 and is scheduled to leave on March 6, has spent nearly half of its time in the Gwalior-Chambal region, considered a stronghold of Mr. Scindia.
The Congress had made strong gains in the region in the 2018 Assembly elections, winning 26 out of its 34 seats and much of the credit was given to Mr. Scindia.
However, in 2023 Assembly election, the BJP with Mr. Scindia in its fold, regained much of its ground with 18 seats.
With the Lok Sabha election around the corner, the grand-old party has been aggressively working in the region to negate the Scindia-factor in the region and make a comeback. The party currently does not hold any of the four Lok Sabha seats — Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, and Guna — in the belt.
