'Those Whose Caste Is Not Known...': Anurag Thakur's Remark Triggers Row, Rahul Gandhi Says 'He Insulted & Abused Me'

Rahul Gandhi said that "whoever raises the issues of Adivasi, Dalit and the backward, is abused" and also reiterated that he would get a cast census conducted in India.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Anurag Thakur took a veilded jibe at the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over the issue of caste census during the Monsoon session of the Parliament on Tuesday. Chaos ensued in the House as he said that those whose caste is unknown talk about the caste census, following which the Congress MP accused Thakur of "insulting and abusing" him.

"Those whose caste is not known, talks about the caste census. I want to remind the Speaker that in this House itself, a former prime minister RG-1 had opposed reservation for OBCs," the BJP MP said in the House.

Amidst the uproar in the session, Gandhi, accusing Thakur of "abusing and insulting" him, reiterated that his promise of carrying out a nationwide case census saying. "You can insult me as much as you like but we will pass the caste census in Parliament," he said.

 Meanwhile, Anurag Thakur said that he did not name anyone in his remark.

"I had said that someone who doesn't know about caste talks about census. I did not name anyone," he said.

Saying that he didn't want any apology from Thakur over the "abuse" and "insult", Rahul Gandhi said: "Whoever raises the issues of Adivasi, Dalit and the backward, is abused. I will happily accept these abuses...Anurag Thakur has abused me and insulted me. But I do not want any apology from him."

"I will take all the abuses happily... Like Arjun in Mahabharata, I can only see the fish's eye. We will get caste census done. That's it. You can abuse me however many times you like," the LoP added.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also spoke in favour of Gandhi asking, "How can you ask someone's caste? You can not ask anyone's caste."

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the grand old party stressed that it would get a caste census done in the country, and Rahul Gandhi had called it the "X-Ray of India".

The Congress MP had claimed that the exercise was necessary as the numbers of the country's biggest chunks of population were unknown. However, the BJP had accused Congress of trying to divide the country over caste.