Did Congress really ignore Dalits and OBCs in the 1990s, Inside Story of Rahul’s statement

New Delhi : Amidst the enthusiasts of the Delhi Assembly elections, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has done a big ‘confession’. The confession is that the RSS strengthened by the mistakes of the Congress. If she had not ignored the interests of Dalits and OBCs in the 1990s, the RSS would never have come to ‘power’. So what is really Rahul Gandhi saying is true? First of all, know what Rahul Gandhi has said. he/she said in the ‘deprived society: Dasha and Disha’ program in Delhi, ‘I have to say that what the Congress should have done in the last 10-15 years has not done it. If the Congress had been able to maintain the trust of Dalits, backward and extremely backward, the RSS would never come to power.

Why is Rahul Gandhi talking about the 1990s?
The thing to note here is that Rahul Gandhi is talking about the 1990s and according to him/her, the Congress had ignored Dalits and backward during that time. Rahul Gandhi did not take the name of PV Narasimha Rao but the fact is that Narasimha Rao of Congress was Prime Minister till 1991-96. This was the era in the history of Congress when no member of the Nehru-Gandhi family was in active politics. Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991. In the late 90s, in 1998, Sonia Gandhi stepped into politics and became Congress President. In this way, Rahul Gandhi’s statement also has deep political meanings.

The country’s politics took a turn in the 1990s
Indeed, the 1990s changed Indian politics forever. This was the period that can be called ‘Mandal’ and ‘Kamandal’. And clearly, the seeds of future politics were planted in the late 80s and in the early 90s. The VP Singh government started reservation of backward by implementing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, while the Ram temple movement scripted BJP’s rise. As long as the Congress remained in power, it did not allow the Mandal Commission report to appear in Parliament. Like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi also opposed reservation on caste basis. When the Report of the Mandal Commission was being discussed in Parliament, Rajiv Gandhi strongly opposed it.

Mandal politics led to the rise of new caste-based parties in North India, such as Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. On the other hand, the BJP warmed the issue of Hindutva on the heat of the Ram temple movement. he/she slowly worked on social engineering to get rid of the tag of Brahmin-Baniya’s party. United the backward, extremely backward and Dalits under the umbrella of Hindutva. Increased representation of these classes in organizations and governments.

How much power in Rahul Gandhi’s words?
Rahul Gandhi has blamed the period of 1990 for the decline in public support of the Congress. But the seeds of the political incidents of that decade had already fallen. From Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi strongly opposed reservation. Due to this, Dalits, who were the traditional vote banks of the Congress, gradually started to split from the party. The rise of parties with caste-based basis has completed. The core vote bank of the Congress in the respective states slipped there. Minority voters also moved from the Congress to the regional parties who could compete or beat the BJP to stop the BJP’s rise.

The weakening of the Congress started in 1986 with the historic mistake of Rajiv Gandhi when he/she used the overwhelming majority to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in the Shah Bano case. The apex court ordered the husband of a Muslim woman named Shah Bano to give her alimony every month. The radicals went out. Described it in religious cases. The Rajiv Gandhi government bowed to the fundamentalists and overturned the Supreme Court’s decision by the majority of Parliament. After this, the Congress was accused of ‘Muslim appeasement’.

Rajiv Gandhi made another mistake to get rid of ‘Muslim appeasement’ allegations. Mistake of Hindu appeasement. he/she opened the lock of the disputed Babri structure of Ayodhya in 1986 closed for 37 years on the court order. Rajiv Gandhi himself reached Ayodhya. Worshiping and laid the foundation stone of the Ram temple near the disputed site. Since then, the BJP hijacked the issue in a way and later launched a movement for construction of Ram temple. The RSS or simply say that the BJP got real power from this.

Congress’s performance since 1990
Once, from the 1990s, we also look at the Congress’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections till now. The Congress won 244 Lok Sabha seats in the 1991 election. The party won 140 in 1996, 141 in 1998, 114 in 1999, 145 in 2004, 206 in 2009, 44 in 2014, 53 in 2019 and 99 in 2024. Interestingly, the Congress’s performance was the worst in 2014 and 2019 when the party’s main face was Rahul Gandhi himself.