‘Naive Or Fool’: Kiren Rijiju Slams Rahul Gandhi Over OBC Secretaries In Govt Remark

New Delhi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday criticised Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for questioning the Centre’s approach regarding representation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) in both bureaucracy and judiciary.

“Today Rahul Gandhi again said there are only 3 OBC Secretaries to Govt of India and negligible OBC Judges. Is he naive or a fool? A fresh IAS Officer can’t just become Secretary and a fresh lawyer can’t become a Judge of High Court or SC directly,” Rijiju posted on his X handle.

He was responding to Rahul’s statement during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra earlier in the day when he asked a gathering at Lalganj Indira Chowk in Uttar Pradesh about number of Dalits, Adivasis, and backward people in high courts and the bureaucracy. “You don’t have courage, you all are sleeping. There are 650 high court judges. You have 73% of the population…Tell me how many people do you have among the bureaucrats?…”

The Minister of Earth Sciences further explained that the current secretaries are of 1992 batch or before. “At that time, there were reserved categories for SC & ST, but not OBC. OBC classification into All India Service (AIS) came only post 1995 following the court verdict. Anyone who understands the service and the progression of the service knows how the batch system works in gaining seniority. Has Congress Party done anything in their time to promote more OBC/SC/ST IAS Officers and SC/ST/OBC Judges,” he said.

“This man wants to destabilize Indian society and create chaos with the support of anti-India forces. But with the blessings of people of India, PM @narendramodi ji is powering India forward with the spirit of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas!” Rijiju concluded.

Besides ‘discrimination’ against the OBC in the country’s top bureaucratic set-up, Rahul has also accused the BJP government of giving preference to the capitalists. “By inviting industrialists and Amitabh Bachchan to the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, Modi gave the message that the country’s 73 percentage of people has no importance,” he said.

He added that “not inviting” the Dalits, backward and even the President to the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya was an insult to them.