Aren’t Dalits nationalists, Rahul Gandhi asks Modi

The BJP’s “nationalism” pitch at a party meeting on Tuesday has invited comment from the opposition, with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether he considers Dalits and backward community members to be “not nationalists”.

Quoting news reports on the BJP core group meeting, Rahul tweeted on Wednesday: “So, now Dalits and Backwards are not ‘Nationalists’ Modiji?”

At the meeting, Modi had talked about nationalism and specifically mentioned the “Tiranga Yatra” that various ministers have been undertaking as part of the ruling dispensation’s political mobilisation project over the past month.

The PM also talked about the need for taking the government’s “pro-poor” agenda to the most deprived sections of the population — a comment that has been perceived to underline the BJP’s worry about the current discontent among Dalits as well as backward communities, both of whom have been agitating in different States, including the BJP’s stronghold of Gujarat.

The Opposition raked up the BJP’s “upper caste” and “anti-Dalit” lineage and the fact that the ruling party’s ideological parent, the RSS, has shown a reluctance to hoisting the tricolour at its Nagpur headquarters except on select days such as the first Republic Day in 1950 and then again in 2002, and this year on Independence Day.

The RSS hoists its own saffron flag with the “Om” inscribed on it on most occasions.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, at the launch of a book in Patna, quipped that “those who never accepted the national flag have now taken to carrying out Tiranga Yatras”.

However, in a press release on Wednesday, the BJP said the media report on which Rahul had based his tweet was in itself false. The party criticised the news report for falsifying what Modi had said at the meeting.