‘Will Take Reservation Beyond 50% Limit’: Rahul Gandhi Clarifies Remark After BJP Backlash

Congress’ Rahul Gandhi clarified his remarks made at the Georgetown University in Washington DC, which were perceived as anti-reservation, and said his party would work to increase reservation beyond the existing 50% limit.

“Yesterday someone misrepresented my statement that I am against reservation. But let me make it clear – I am not against reservation. We will take reservations beyond the limit of 50 per cent,” the Congress leader clarified during an interview at the National Press Club in the US.

During an interaction with students and faculty of Georgetown University in Washington DC on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi had said Congress will “think of ending reservation when India is a fair place”.

He said he believes that India is yet to reach that point. “The elephant in the room is that 90 per cent of India — OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis don’t play the game,” the Amethi MP said, while batting for caste census.

“Caste census is a simple exercise to know how the lower castes, backward castes and Dalits are integrated into the system… Out of the top 200 businesses in India, there is almost no ownership of 90% of the population of India. In the highest courts of the country, there is almost no participation of 90 per cent of India. In the media, there is zero participation of lower castes, OBCs, Dalits,” he claimed.

Gandhi said the caste census will allow for a better understanding of where disadvantaged people of this country stand socially and economically. “We want to understand what their social and financial position looks like…We also want to look at the Indian institutions to have a sense of India’s participation in these institutions,” he said.

The BJP used Rahul Gandhi’s comments to criticise him and said he wanted to end reservations. “By speaking about abolishing reservations in the country, Rahul Gandhi has once again brought the Congress’s anti-reservation face to the forefront. The thoughts that were in his mind eventually found their way out as words,” Amit Shah, the home minister, said.

“Rahul Gandhi’s statement lays bare the Congress’s politics of causing rifts on the lines of regionalism, religion, and linguistic differences,” the union minister further added.