Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI,FEB 19 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya last month, calling it a spectacle devoid of representation for lower castes.

Gandhi singled out Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan while questioning the absence of members from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Aishwarya, incidentally, didn’t attend the event.

“Did you see the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at the Ram Temple? Was there a single OBC face? There was Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Narendra Modi,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying. The Gandhi scion was addressing a public gathering during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra march in UP’s Prayagraj on Sunday.

“People who constitute 73 per cent of the total population of the country were nowhere seen during the event. The BJP would never want them to assume the reins of the country,” he said.

Gandhi once again strongly advocated the need for a caste census, calling it an essential tool to expose social inequalities. “How much wealth do the 73 per cent castes have in this country? Caste census is the X-ray of the country. This will reveal everything,” he stated.

PM Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat presided over the Ram temple ceremony, joined by thousands of celebrities, politicians, and dignitaries. However, opposition parties, including the Congress, chose to skip the event, accusing the BJP of exploiting it for political gain.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is set to enter Amethi, his former Lok Sabha constituency, on Monday. This coincides with a four-day visit by Union minister Smriti Irani, who defeated Gandhi in the 2019 general elections.

This marks only the second occasion since 2019 that both leaders will be present in Amethi simultaneously, the previous instance being separate campaign events during the 2022 assembly polls.

-PTI