Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI, AUG 25 : Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remark questioning lack of representation from the marginalised communities in the Miss India beauty pageant.

The Union Minister, in a post on X, said, “Now, he wants reservations in Miss India competitions, films, sports! It is not only an issue of ‘Bal Budhi’ (childish mentality), but the people who cheer him are equally responsible too!”

He further said that “while childish behaviour might be entertaining, it should not come at the expense of ridiculing or undermining the backward communities through divisive tactics”.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday, attacked the Narendra Modi-led Central government, saying that there was no woman belonging to the Dalit, Tribal or OBC communities, who made the cut for Miss India beauty pageant. The Congress leader said this while reiterating his demand and the importance of conducting a nationwide caste census.

“I checked the list of Miss India to see if there would be any Dalit or tribal woman in it, but there was no women from Dalit, tribal or OBC. Still, the media talks about dance, music, cricket, Bollywood but does not talk about farmers and labourers”, Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday while addressing a Samvidhan Samman Sammelan in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.

The former Congress president, on Saturday, said that a caste census was not just a census but served as a foundation for effective policymaking.

During campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, in its manifesto, promised to conduct a nationwide socio-economic caste census to enumerate the castes, sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions, if the party was voted to power.

While addressing an election rally in April, Rahul Gandhi also said if Congress formed the government at the Centre, it would conduct a financial and institutional survey to ascertain the distribution of wealth among the people in the country.

Rahul Gandhi’s promise, however, drew a sharp rebuttal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had alleged that the Congress would distribute the country’s wealth to “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”. PM Modi’s remarks sparked a huge uproar among the Opposition.

-PTI