BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh and former Union Minister Anurag Thakur, whose speech on Tuesday during discussions on the Budget in Parliament targeting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was criticised by the INDIA Block as seemingly casteist, has said it was the Congress that considered Dalits and backward classes to be "buddhu" (intellectually challenged).
In an interview to a news channel Thakur said his speech had "hurt" the "sense of entitlement" of some people and that "the entire ecosystem started screaming and shouting because such people thought they were the only ones who had the right to ask questions as they were privileged."
Claiming that those who questioned him (Thakur) were the ones whose forefathers used to call the backwards, deprived and Dalits "intellectually challenged," he said, "today their homes are filled with people who are intellectually challenged.
"Their forefathers made excuses for denying equal rights to Dalits and tribals. They are the people who could not accept a Dalit man standing before them in a suit to write the Constitution."
Thakur, who took on Rahul Gandhi in Parliament on Tuesday for comparing the BJP's lotus election sign to a chakravyuh (a military formation for trapping enemies) said in the interview that he was not calling anyone intellectually challenged, but former Congress leader and Prime Minister, late Rajiv Gandhi, had made such a statement in public.
"Let the entire Congress assembly read what he had said," Thakur continued, displaying a newspaper clipping that he claimed was from the Navbharat Times, Lucknow Edition, dated March 19, 1985, bylined Alok Mehta.
Quoting from the clipping, he said: "Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is of the opinion that the reservations made for backward classes when the Constitution was being framed have been much politicised over the last few years. That's why it is the right time now to rethink all these provisions from a different perspective."
Claiming he was quoting Rajiv Gandhi in the article, Thakur read, "The repressed and backward should get privileges and assistance but to extend it to different areas would mean encouraging the intellectually challenged and detrimental to the interests of the country."
Thakur then asked if Rahul Gandhi would tell the world if the backward community was intellecually challenged and if the Congress would criticise this remark by Rajiv Gandhi or if Parliament would pass a resolution against such a statement.
He also said Nehru and Indira Gandhi had been against reservations and that if the Congress government had not delayed implementing the Mandal Commission and Kaka Kalelkar recommendations, the condition of the Dalits and backwards would have been very different today.
Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday moved a Privilege Motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for tweeting the expunged portions of Thakur's remarks against Rahul Gandhi in Parliament.
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