Lucknow, March 13 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that if Jawaharlal Nehru had been alive, Kanshi Ram would have been made a chief minister by the Congress.
Nehru, India's first prime minister, died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram rose to prominence in 1978 with the founding of BAMCEF, which championed the cause of backward castes, and later strengthened his position with the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984.
In his tribute to the Dalit icon, Gandhi said that Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, and Kanshi Ram never compromised on their principles.
He was speaking at the Samvidhan Sammelan held in Lucknow ahead of Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary.
"We need to move forward at a faster pace. The Congress party has made some mistakes," the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
He said that if the Congress had done its job effectively, Kanshi Ram "would not have been successful."
He added, "If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress."
Gandhi said that in politics, there are two types of people – one wants progress for everyone, while the other seeks only personal gain.
"Mahatma Gandhi went to jail for 10-15 years, but he did not compromise. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave his life, but did not compromise. Did Kanshi Ram compromise? The question does not arise. He could not have done it," Gandhi said.
The former Congress president mentioned Narayan Guru, Basavanna, Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Gautam Buddha to say that their voices are enshrined in the Constitution.
"Nathuram Godse's voice is not in this Constitution. No matter what he may claim, Narendra Modi does not subscribe to the ideology of this Constitution," he said.
"People say many things about Ambedkarji that he studied at Columbia, he fought for the Dalits, that he was an intellectual, that he championed the Dalit cause, and that he dedicated his entire life to society. But the essential point is that he never compromised," he said.
Referring to his speech in Parliament, he said, "Yesterday in Parliament, I mentioned the 'Epstein' case, and the Speaker said no, no...I said that the matter pertains to energy security. The issue is that people are not getting LPG cylinders."
Gandhi alleged that India's energy security has been "compromised" under the Narendra Modi-led dispensation.
"If today, the US tells us to buy oil and gas from Russia, from Iran, Iraq or any other country, it means that our energy security has been compromised," he said.
He said that the central government "bartered" with the US the country's right to determine its relationships with different oil suppliers. He said that the war between the US-Israel combine and Iran is going to have far-reaching consequences.
Gandhi attacked Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri for the gas 'crisis' in the country, and also referred to his mention in the notorious Epstein Files.
"Hardeep Puri, whom you picked up from the bureaucracy and appointed as the oil minister, represents the first major compromise. His name appears in the Epstein files. Money belonging to George Soros has gone into his daughter's company," he alleged.
"The moment I used the word compromise, the Speaker said that you cannot use the word compromise," he said.
In Parliament, Gandhi sought to link the issue of India's energy security with the US Department of Justice's disclosures.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asked Gandhi to speak on the notice he was given and not deviate.
The Congress leader said that Dalits and Adivasis hardly occupy top positions in the judiciary, bureaucracy, and the cabinet, and this disparity is undermining the country's interests.
"You will discover that 85 per cent of the population is nowhere to be found within them. Go online and pull up a list of the 500 largest companies. Then, while you are online, look up the names of their CEOs. Look up the names of their senior management teams. And then observe how many Dalits, Adivasis, people from Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, and Minorities are present there. Just take a look. You will find virtually none," he said.
Gandhi claimed that there is no Dalit or Adivasi or OBC in the top rung of the RSS, the ideological fount of the BJP.
"On one side, there are 85 per cent, and they are being told that this country does not belong to you. Merely for the sake of saying, you are Indians. But when it comes to the distribution of wealth, or running the country, or that of power, at that moment, you are no longer considered Indians. You are treated as something else entirely," he said.