News Mania Desk/ Sohom Chatterjee / 10th September 2024
The opposition leader of the Indian Parliament and Congress MP is on a three-day USA visit from September 8 to 10. This is his first foreign visit after the 2024 general elections which aims towards engaging with the Indian diaspora, meeting with business and academic leaders, and participating in other activities.
Gandhi on September 9 visited prestigious Georgetown University where engaged in dialogues with students. There he said that the Congress Party will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place, but currently that is not the situation. As quoted by PTI, Rahul Gandhi said, “We will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place. And India is not a fair place,” Rahul Gandhi told students at the university in Washington in response to a question on reservation and how long it would continue.”
“When you look at the financial numbers, then tribals get 10 paise out of 100 rupees; Dalits get 5 rupees out of 100 rupees, and OBCs get a similar number. The fact of the matter is that they’re not getting participation.”
“The problem is that 90 per cent of India is not able to play. Go through the list of every single business leader in India. I’ve done it. Show me the tribal name. Show me the Dalit name. Show me the OBC name. Out of the top 200, I think there’s one OBC. They’re 50 per cent of India. But we’re not treating the symptom.”
“That’s the problem. Now, it (reservation) is not the only tool. There are other tools.”
Elaborating on the matter, the opposition leader said, ”“There are many people who come from the upper caste who say, look, what have we done wrong? Why are we being punished? So, then you think about increasing dramatically the supply of some of these things. You think about decentralising power. You think about involving many more people in the governance of our country. You think of opening up. With all due respect, I don’t think any of you are ever going to become Adani or Ambani. There’s a reason for that. You can’t. Because those doors are closed. So the answer to people in the general cast is you open those doors.”
As the Haryana and J&K Assembly elections come closer, the INC are trying their best to regain their political power at the regional level.
