Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 5: A war of words has broken out between the two main rival parties after the BJP put up a shocking poster of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi depicting him as “Ravana” with multiple heads and armour and also attacked the Hungarian-American businessman George Soros.
The film poster-like creative made by the BJP showing Rahul Gandhi in the image of Ravana appeared on the BJP’s handle on X. The BJP has written “Ravana, a Congress party production, directed by George Soros.”
The BJP often targets Mr Soros, the Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist whose huge donations to groups across the world are seen as interference in internal matters.
Just like Ravana, Rahul Gandhi is shown with multiple heads, wearing a body armour. “The new age Ravana is here. He is Evil. Anti Dharma. Anti Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat,” the BJP said in the post on X.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a post on X questioned the BJP over the post that he claimed was intended “to incite and provoke violence” against Rahul Gandhi. “No words are enough to condemn the shameful graphic on the BJP handle comparing Rahul Gandhi ji to Ravana. Their nefarious intentions are clear, they want to murder him. He, who lost his grandmother and father to assassinations,” KC Venugopal wrote on X.
“They withdrew his SPG protection to score petty political points. After evicting him from his secure residence, they haven’t allocated another house that he has requested. All this points to a well-planned conspiracy of the BJP to eliminate their fiercest critic, someone who attacks the very core of their hate-filled ideology,” he added.
The two parties, however, are together in rejecting the survey report of the backward classes in Odisha carried out by Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes. They allege that door-to-door enumeration route was not followed to know the exact population of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (Other Backward Classes).
The Commission has pointed out that the other backward class (OBC) population constituted 39.31% of the State’s total populace. Though the survey report was not officially made public by the Naveen Patnaik Government, both the BJP and the Congress said the survey failed to capture clear picture of backward classes.
“The Odisha government lacked sincerity in conducting the survey. The procedure was faulty. They could have gone from village to village to collect data on backward classes. Instead of that they set up survey centre where head of family gave all data about other members. Some communities did not even participate in survey,” said Surath Biswal, President of State BJP OBC front. Mr Biswal said, “The survey should again be carried out involving grassroot level workers such as Anganwadi workers.”
The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Sarat Pattanayak demanded that Odisha immediately conduct a caste-based survey akin to Bihar. “The Odisha Government should immediately order caste survey in the State and release the report before the 2024 elections. If it fails to conduct the caste survey within this period, the Congress will undertake this exercise upon coming to power,” said Mr. Pattanayak. He demanded convening of special session of Odisha Legislative Assembly and passage of unanimous resolution for caste survey.
Addressing a press conference, former Union Minister Srikant Jena said, “The Naveen Patnaik Government had agreed to conduct a caste-based survey in the State. But the same survey has not been done yet. The result is evident. Odisha government could not take affirmative actions as per the population ratio.”
“Last year Odisha government had taken a decision to implement 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections from general caste community who constitute a mere 6% of State’s population. Students took advantage of the quota in professional courses. However, the OBCs, who constitute 54% of State’s population, are deprived of any reservation in education sector,” Mr Jena pointed out.