Modi says poor the biggest caste, then why he flaunts his OBC identity: Rahul Gandhi

Raipur: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks that ‘There is only one caste in the country, that is the poor’ and said in that case why the latter ‘flaunted’ his other backward class (OBC) identity.

Addressing an election meeting in Jagdalpur in Bastar in Chhattisgarh, Mr Gandhi said that if Mr Modi believed that the poor was the only caste in the country, then why did he identify him as OBC in all his speeches.

He was referring to the speech by Mr Modi at Durg in Chhattisgarh earlier in the day.

Mr Gandhi wondered if Mr Modi was overlooking the tribals, dalits and backward classes by making such a statement.

He said that Mr Modi should change his mindset towards the poor and the tribals.

He lashed out at BJP for calling ‘adivasi’ as ‘vanvasi’ (forest dwellers), describing it as an ‘insult’ to the tribal people.

Mr Gandhi said that Congress would eliminate the term ‘adivasi’ in the country.

Congress worked for protections of the ‘Jal-Jungle-Zameen’ (water, forest and land) of the tribals unlike BJP which wanted the tribals to beg by hanging over their land to the corporate, he said.

He recalled the incident in Madhya Pradesh caught in a video in which a man was seen peeing at a tribal, and said that it demonstrated how tribals were treated in the BJP-ruled state.

He said that Congress had fulfilled all the promises it made for Chhattisgarh in the 2018 assembly elections by raising the procurement price of paddy to Rs 2,500 per quintal and pledged to increase it further to Rs 3,000 per quintal if the party retained power in the ensuing assembly elections in the state.

He also said that Congress fulfilled its promise to waive crop loans of farmers in Chhattisgarh.