In an apparent dig at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his recent remarks on reservation and the Sikh community while in the US, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said he is “pained and disturbed” that some people in positions have no idea of India or the country’s interest.

Addressing the participants of the third batch of Rajya Sabha Internship Programme, without directly taking the Congress leader’s name, Dhankhar said, “I am pained and disturbed that some people in positions have just no idea of Bharat. They have no idea of our Constitution, they have no idea of our national interest. I am sure your heart must be bleeding from what you see. If we are true Bhartiya, if we believe in our nation, we will never side with the enemies of the nation. We will all stand spinally for the nation.”

“We can’t ridicule nationalism. Every Indian outside the country has to be an ambassador of this nation. How painful. One who holds a constitutional position is doing just the reverse of it. Nothing can be more condemnable, despicable and intolerable that you become part of enemies of the nation. They do not understand the value of freedom,” the Vice President said.

“They do not understand that this country has a civilizational depth of 5000 years. Let me invite your attention first to our Constitution. Some people are so ignorant that they just take the Constitution for granted, the Constitution that is sacred. It was structured over 3 years of painstaking work by the founding fathers of the Constitution, the members of the constituent assembly over 18 sessions without disruption, without disturbance, without sloganeering, without any posters being raised,” he further said.

On September 9, Rahul Gandhi had said the Congress party will think of scrapping reservations when India becomes a “fair place,” which it is not. The Congress leader was interacting with students and faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

He also reiterated the need to conduct a caste census while saying that 90 per cent of the country’s population–OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis–not having proper representation in the country is the “elephant in the room.”

During his interaction with the Indian diaspora in the US, Rahul Gandhi said that the fight is about whether a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a turban in India and would be able to visit a Gurdwara.

“First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. Fight is not about politics. It is superficial. What is your name? The fight is about whether he, as a Sikh, is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India. Or he as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a kada in India. Or a Sikh is going to be able to go to Gurdwara. That’s what the fight is about and not just for him, for all religions,” he said.