On Wednesday, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi escalated his political fight for the empowerment of the Dalits, tribals and backward classes of the society and underlined the paradox of representation without power.

Speaking at a programme pertaining to the birth anniversary of the Dalit icon Jaglal Chaudhary, in Patna, Rahul emphasised that India’s backward classes do have political representation, but that has not translated into real power in their hands.

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He also repeated his call to save the Constitution of India and viewed that only the Constitution of India could give the backward class true representation and that is why, according to him. the BJP and the RSS wanted to change it.

Invoking Rohit Vemula, he said that all RSS leaders did bow to Ambedkar, but they didn’t respect what he fought for. “They will do it in a subtle way to deceive you,” he said.

According to Rahul, the new political establishment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has further diminished the representation of Dalits, tribals and backward classes of the society. However, he promised that it wouldn’t continue anymore and asserted that Dalits and the backwards would get a share in power as per their population. In order to achieve these goals, Rahul voiced in favour of conducting caste survey across the country, making policies based on the collected data and implement it with full determination to uplift them. He also cited the example of Telangana in this regard.

He had raised these issues also at the ‘Save Constitution Conclave’ held in Patna on January 18, which sparked political discussions on social justice issues.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi visited the house of Congress Legislature Party leader, Shakeel Ahmed Khan and expressed condolence on the tragic demise of his son Ayan Khan. He was a talented boy who was good at studies and was fond of poetry. He had met Rahul Gandhi on the stage during the ‘Save Constitution Conclave’.