New Delhi, Jan 30 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that a new phase of the “emancipation of Dalits and Backwards” in the country is beginning.
He said that representation without power is irrelevant.
Interacting with Dalit influencers at the ‘Vanchit Samaj: Dasha aur Disha’ programme here, Gandhi said, “The previous phase of the Dalit emancipation was over.
He claimed that in the previous structure there were no more opportunities left for the Dalits and Backwards.
“No matter how much we try, problems will not be solved in this structure, as it has been completely captured by the BJP and the RSS”, he alleged.
He further alleged that there is no anchor belonging to the Dalit, Backward or Adivasi community in the mainstream media.
Stating that now the fight was not merely for representation, but control, Gandhi observed, that providing participation and control are two different things.
“You got the participation but you did not get any control”, he told the participants, while accusing the BJP of making political representation irrelevant.
Quoting the example of Dalit and Adivasi Presidents appointed by the BJP, he claimed that theirs was just a symbolic appointment without any power.
Gandhi admitted that during the last 10-15 years the Dalits and the Backwards had lost some of the confidence in the Congress.
He assured that he would rebuild that confidence, pointing out how much faith the Dalits, the backwards and the minorities had in Indira Gandhi, whom they believed would give any sacrifice to safeguard their interests.
He said, if the Dalits and the backwards had not lost confidence in the Congress the BJP and the RSS would have never come to power.
Alleging that there was a full-scale attack on the Dalits, minorities, women and Adivasis by the RSS and the BJP, he said, they can be defeated once everyone is united against them.
Referring to Arvind Kejriwal, Gandhi alleged that he was as much anti-reservation and anti-Dalit as Narendra Modi. He said, the only difference is that Kejriwal is somewhat more sophisticated than Modi.