‘Wants reservations at Miss India’: Kiren Rijiju's ‘bal buddhi’ swipe at Rahul Gandhi

Union minister Kiren Rijiju also accused Rahul Gandhi of stoking divisions in the country.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks about the lack of representation of women from Dalit, Tribal, or Other Backward Classes communities in the “Miss India pageant list".

Union minister of parliamentary affairs and minority affairs Kiren Rijiju (File Photo)(File)

"Now, he wants reservations at Miss India competitions, films, and sports! It is not only issue of "Bal Budhi", but people who cheer him are - equally responsible too!" Rijiu wrote on X in a swipe at the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The union minister also accused Gandhi of stoking divisions in the country with his renewed remarks regarding the nationwide caste census.

“I have checked the list of Miss India, which did not have any Dalit, Adivasi (tribal) or OBC women. Some will talk about cricket or Bollywood. No one will show the cobbler or plumber. Even top anchors in the media are not from the 90 per cent…We want to know how many in institutions, corporates, Bollywood, Miss India are from the 90 per cent. I am only saying that 90 per cent did not have ‘bhagidari’ (participants) and this should be checked,” Gandhi said during a ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Uttar Pradesh.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre, the Congress leader questioned, “They will say Modiji embraced someone, and we have become a superpower. How have we become a superpower when 90 per cent of people have no participation?”

Gandhi pressed for a nationwide caste census, saying it was not for “any political reasons” but to “include the 90 per cent of India's poor in the mainstream”.