Rahul Gandhi says reservation remark ‘misinterpreted’: ‘Let me make it clear…’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday issued a clarification regarding his remarks on “ending reservation” during his ongoing US visit, saying his comments were “misinterpreted”. The Leader of the Opposition was facing backlash for saying the Congress party would “end reservation” when India is a fair place.

Issuing a clarification on his earlier remarks, Rahul Gandhi said he is not against reservation, and his party will take the reservation beyond 50 per cent if they come into power.

“Yesterday someone misrepresented my statement that I am against reservation. But let me make it clear – I am not against reservation. We will take reservation beyond the limit of 50 per cent,” Gandhi said at the National Press Club in the US.

The Congress MP’s comment on reservation came on Tuesday when he was interacting with the students and faculty members of Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Gandhi had said India was not a fair place at the moment, and the Congress party would “think of ending reservation when India is a fair place.” He said, “The elephant in the room is that 90 per cent of India — OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis don’t play the game.”

He further stressed that the INDIA bloc wants to defend the Constitution and most of the alliance partners agree on holding a caste census, adding that ‘two businessmen’ should not run every business in the country.

However, leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Gandhi of making “anti-national” statements on foreign soil and criticised his stance on reservation. Union home minister Amit Shah said Rahul Gandhi’s comments brought forward Congress’ “anti-reservation face.”

“Rahul Gandhi’s statement lays bare the Congress’s politics of causing rifts on the lines of regionalism, religion, and linguistic differences. By speaking about abolishing reservations in the country, Rahul Gandhi has once again brought the Congress’s anti-reservation face to the forefront. The thoughts that were in his mind eventually found their way out as words,” the home minister said.

Earlier in the day, leaders from the Sikh community and BJP members staged a protest outside the LoP residence in Delhi for his “anti-Sikh” remarks in Washington DC while interacting with Indian Americans.