'Congress PMs Said Muslims Have Right To Nation's Assets': BJP Claims Gandhi Family Denied People Equality

BJP leader CT Ravi hits out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over his remark to grant equal rights to everyone.

Bhartiya Janata Party leader CT Ravi on Wednesday lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remark on giving rights based on the census data. "Did Rahul Gandhi realise now that everyone has equal rights? His great-grandfather, grandmother, and father were Prime Minister... Who did they give rights to until now," Ravi said while speaking to reporters in Bengaluru. "Congress PMs did not say that the first right on the resources of the country is of poors, but Muslims " he added. 

On Tuesday, the Congress MP said that the rights to the people in the country should be given according to the percentage of the their population as per the data of the caste census. 

"The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC + SC + ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India's budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. The greater the population, the greater the rights – this is our pledge," Gandhi said in a post on X. 

PM Modi Also Hits Out At Rahul Gandhi  

Hitting out at the Wayanad MP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said asked whether the Congress wanted to take away the rights of the minorities. 

Addressing a rally Tuesday in poll-bound Chhattisgarh's Jagdalpur under Bastar district, Modi accused the Congress top brass of being “in league with anti-national forces” and said the party was “out to divide Hindus at any cost and destroy Bharat”.

Modi said going by the demand of Congress, the largest population in the country is that of poors and their welfare is my goal. 

“I wonder what former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Ji must be thinking. He used to say the minorities, and Muslims even among the minorities, had the first right on the nation’s resources. Now the Congress is saying that the population size will decide who has the first right,” he said.

What Did Manmohan Singh Say In His Speech?

The statement in question has stirred up controversy earlier as well which was a part of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at the meeting of the National Development Council on December 9, 2006. 

In his address, Singh had said: "I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children."

"The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will need to be revitalized. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the over-all resource availability," he added. 

After a row erupted on his statement, the Prime Minister's Office rubbished the accusations as "baseless controversy" and issued a clarification stating: "It will be seen from the above that the Prime Minister's reference to "first claim on resources" refers to all the "priority" areas listed above, including programmes for the upliftment of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities."