BJP Haryana X Account Posts Cropped Video Of Rahul Gandhi On Reservations

The post, which is in Hindi, says, “Congress will end reservation. It is clear from Rahul Gandhi's intention to abolish reservation that Congress has been conspiring to end reservation for years.”

Gandhi, currently on a four-day visit to the U.S., was interacting with students and faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on September 10.

The 5-seconds long video shows Gandhi saying, "we will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place,"

Fact-check

BOOM found out that Haryana BJP’s X account had selectively cropped Rahul Gandhi’s reply while omitting his entire response to the question thereby making the culled part misleading.

During the question and answer session a student framed her question by saying caste-based reservations were like 'treating symptoms rather than addressing the actual problem' and asked Gandhi about his and the Congress party’s stance on caste-based reservation and if the party would consider moving away from them.

The question can be heard at the 53.35 timestamp in the video.

Gandhi’s response explained that India's financial decisions are controlled by around 70 bureaucrats, most of whom come from upper castes. Despite Dalits, Tribals, and OBCs making up 73% of the population, they have minimal representation in decision-making positions and receive very little in financial benefits.

"If you add up Dalits, Tribals, and OBCs, they make up 73 percent. Out of those 70 people, there is one tribal, three Dalits, and three OBCs, and I think a minority. So, 90 percent in the GOI has access to less than 10 percent of the positions that determine how finances and money will be spent. When you actually look at the financial numbers, tribals get ten paise out of 100 rupees, Dalits get five rupees out of 100, and OBCs get a similar amount. The fact of the matter is that they are not getting participation. The problem is that 90 percent of India is not able to play," Gandhi said.

He further said, "Go through the list of every single business leader in India. I’ve done it. Show me the tribal name, show me the Dalit name, and show me the OBC name. Out of the top 200 business leaders, I think there’s one OBC. OBCs are 50 percent of India. We are not treating the symptom. That (the lack of representation) is the problem. It is not the only tool; there are other tools, but we will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place. And India is not a fair place."

Later, Gandhi reiterated his stance on caste-based reservations. He clarified that hat he was misquoted about his stance on reservations. The Economic Times quoted him saying, "Somebody misquoted me yesterday, saying that I am against reservations... I have been saying again and again and again - we are going to increase reservations beyond 50%, and I am not against reservation." He added, "What we are saying is different than the idea of only reservations. We want to have a comprehensive understanding... first of what's going on, and then we are going to apply a series of policies to correct it... reservation being one of them."