Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a massive claim about what his great-grandfather, India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, would have done for caste justice had he been alive at the time of Kanshi Ram's rise as a political pioneer from the Dalit community.
Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that if Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress.
Nehru died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram broke out onto the scene with his founding of backwards-championing BAMCEF in 1978, and later, the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984.
Rahul Gandhi praised Kanshi Ram's unwavering principles, saying he never compromised on his values, unlike the Congress party which had shortcomings.
The Congress leader also praised Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar for their commitment to social justice.
The BSP under Mayawati currently finds itself in steep electoral decline, having last held power in UP in 2012.
Rahul Gandhi has been pitching for the “sanvidhan” or Constitution, and its guarantees of equality, as a bedrock of his Dalit outreach.
