New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s on Sunday declared that the Congress did not let its former ‘Dalit’ leader complete his term as president.
“The country knows that Sitaram Kesri, a Dalit, was not allowed to complete his five-year term as Congress president. He was thrown out of office and to the footpath to make way for Sonia Gandhi as the new party chief,” Modi declared.
The Congress rubbished the prime minister’s claim of Kesri being a Dalit, claiming instead that the leader belonged to the Vaishya or Bania community.
Modi had used Kesri’s reference to claim how only four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family “benefitted from being in power” even as he tried to impress upon the gathering that the family would not have any ‘outsider’ lead the party. He further challenged the Congress to have someone “capable” from outside the “family” to be its president.
“Remember the days when four generations of a family ruled the country. What was the fate of the people? They only thought about the welfare of one family but never thought about the welfare of the people. How can we expect them to fulfil the aspirations of the people now?” he asked.
Speaking on the last day of campaigning for the second round of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Modi also accused the Congress of placing many hurdles in the path of chief minister Raman Singh. “For 10 years, the Centre was ruled by a remote-control government, which never paid attention towards Chhattisgarh,” he said.
He also accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of playing a game of promises over its proposed farm loan waiver scheme. Averring to the issue, which has caught the fancy of the electorate, Modi said: “As elections approach, the Congress plays a game of promises. But they cannot mislead the country anymore. They must answer what they did for the welfare of our farmers when they ruled for four generations.”
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Within minutes of Modi’s claim on Kesri, the Congress called his bluff. Party leader Tariq Anwar, who was Kesri’s political advisor, came forth to declare that the former party chief was not a Dalit. “PM is again wrong as Kesari ji was not a Dalit, he belonged to ‘Vaishya’ community.”
The Congress leader also claimed that Modi was also wrong on the fact that Kesri had been removed. “Kesari Ji himself offered to resign from the post of Congress president if Sonia ji was ready to take over. At that time I was Sitaram Kesari’s political advisor, so I’m aware of it,” he claimed.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari had a slightly different take on Kesri’s background. He tweeted that “Kesri was a Bania OBC from Bihar and not a Dalit. However, when has the PM allowed facts or truth to stand in the way?”
You are so concerned about Kesri look at what PM has done to LK Advani,Yashwant Sinha,MM Joshi, Jaswant Singh,Arun Shourie & the list is endless.However the only reason history is being dredged out is because @narendramodi is scared of going to the people on his own track record https://t.co/lQt517Pz16
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) November 19, 2018
While Modi erred on Kesri’s caste, the fact remains that towards his last days in office, Congress did not show Kesri the respect he deserved as head of the party. He was not even invited for a major party rally at Nuh in the Mewat district of Haryana that was attended, among others, by the then senior leaders Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Natwar Singh. Kesri resigned as party president in March 1998 after Congress lost the Lok Sabha elections.