It is your responsibility to defend the ideology of the Congress Party and I am proud that you do it every single day against great odds: Rahul Gandhi

Extracts of the speech of former Congress President and Leader of Opposition (LS) Shri Rahul Gandhi’s address, the AICC Meeting in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on April 09, 2025.

Kharge Ji, Sonia Gandhi Ji, CWC members, senior leaders on the dias, AICC members, Party workers, friends from the media, you all are welcome here, Namaskar! 100 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi became the President of the Congress Party and 150 years ago Sardar Patel was born on this soil. Gandhi Ji, Sardar Patel Ji, these are the foundation of the Congress Party. I had a plan for the speech, but Ajay Lallu ji said something, so now my plan got diverted. Just now he said that I am working for the backward, for the Dalits, for the tribals, for the poor people, that is true, but he added that in the coming times people will remember my name. A few years ago, a journalist came to meet me, he is a well-known journalist of India. We were talking in the office, he told me that he was a friend of either Musharraf ji or Nawaz Sharif ji and he told me that he had told Nawaz Sharif or Musharraf ji that if you bring peace between India and Pakistan, the whole world will remember your name and at that time. I was a small child, 7-8 years old, I asked Indira Gandhi ji this question that grandma, what should people say, what should they think about you after your death. Do you know what Indira Gandhi ji replied, which I thought was the perfect answer till date. She said - Rahul, I do my work, what people think about me after my death, it does not matter to me. I am interested in my work and if the whole world forgets me after my death, that too is acceptable to me if I have completed my work. So, this is my thinking. What people will think or what they will not think, it does not matter to me. What is the truth and what I want to do, I want to do that.

In Telangana, we took a revolutionary step - caste census. A few months before that, I had given a speech in the Parliament House, and told Modiji, you should conduct caste census. The country should know how many Dalits are there in this country, how many backward classes, how many extremely backward classes, how many extremely Dalits, how many tribals, how many minorities, how many people from the poor general caste are there and I was not just after caste census, caste census is a step. I wanted to find out who has what participation in this country. At that time, I had said that the country should be x-rayed, it should be found out whether our Dalits, tribals, backward class people who work in the sun, do labour, does this country really respect them. Does this country really give them a place... this was the question in my mind.

Modi ji, RSS clearly said that we will not do caste census. We do not want to know, we do not want to understand, we do not want to tell people how much participation Dalits, tribals, backward, poor general caste, minorities get in this country, we want to hide it and there I said in front of everyone that you can hide as much as you want. We will pass laws in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, we will pass laws right in front of you, we will do caste census right from here. We did it in Telangana and you will be surprised. Revanth Reddy ji said, but did not go into details and I know that the condition of Telangana is the condition of every state in this country. 90 percent of the population in Telangana is OBC, extremely backward, Dalit, extremely Dalit, minority, tribal. Look at the corporate sector of Telangana, the list of owners, the list of CEOs, the list of senior management, you will not find a single person from that 90 percent.

Now-a-days in the 21st century, labourers are called gig workers. They take food to homes, take Amazon deliveries, go out in the sun, die on the roads. In Telangana, their list was released. All of them are either OBC or Dalit or Adivasi. Now caste census has given a completely new tool in Telangana. In Telangana, we can really do development work. In Telangana, we can tell you about participation in every sector with pin point accuracy and I am happy that immediately after the caste census, our Chief Minister and our team have increased the OBC reservation to 42 percent. We talk about superpowers, but when it comes to wealth, participation, corporate India, whether it is private hospitals or private education system, 90 percent are not there. Modiji talks about backward classes 24 hours a day, talks about Dalits, tribals, ‘Vanvasi’, he calls them ‘Vanvasi’ (forest dwellers). But when it comes to their participation, the BJP people become completely silent. So, Telangana has taken a revolutionary step and has shown the way to the whole country and I am repeating it, from this stage I am saying to all of you that we will break the wall of 50 percent in the whole country and the beginning we have made in Telangana, we are going to do the same in Delhi, for the whole of India.

I raised the issue of SC-ST sub-plan. We had brought a revolutionary law. BJP has cancelled it. They are attacking all the institutions of India one after the other. Wherever Dalits, backward classes, tribals, poor general caste used to get a place earlier, all those doors are being closed one after the other. Earlier, youth of every caste of India could join the army, they used to get pension, martyr status, ex-servicemen status, everyone could join it, but they have ended it.

Today, our government tells the youth that if you become a martyr in the war and if you are an Agniveer, then we will neither give you pension nor the status of a martyr. The person who is fighting with you will get it, but you will not get it. For whom was the path closed - for the poor, poor general caste, Dalits, backward classes, extremely backward classes, tribals. Earlier, there used to be a public sector, people of every caste could go there. Steel Authority of India, BHEL, BSNL, HAL, these used to give employment to the youth of the whole country, used to give opportunities, one after the other they are being closed and to whom are they being given - Adani and Ambani. You take out the list of Adani Ji's company, the list of management team, the list of Ambani ji's management team, the list of management of other corporates, you will not find a single Dalit, a tribal, a single backward class person.

So, nothing is left for the 90 percent. Wages, unemployment for the 90 percent and all the airports, ports, defense industry, cement industry of India... whatever Adani ji wants... if he wants mines in Chhattisgarh, if he wants mines in Bastar, he will get them. If he wants mines in Jharkhand, if he wants mines in Bihar, he will get them. If he wants Mumbai airport, take it, if he wants Lucknow airport, take it. If he wants defense industry, take it. Leave HAL aside, leave BHEL aside, build whatever you want to. So, all the money, all the opportunities are being snatched away from the 90 percent.

Earlier Narendra Modi went to America, do you remember he hugged him, remember. This time did you see the photo of him hugging, did you see it? Where did he disappear? President Trump, whom Modi ji calls his friend... gave the order, listen this time he will not hug, this time he will impose new tariffs. He did not even utter a word. He is missing till today. To avoid the attention of the public from going there, he staged a drama in the parliament for two days, but the truth is that an economic storm is about to come.

Covid came, Narendra Modi made people bang plates and show the light of mobile phones. Now the economic storm is coming, it is in front of us. Crores of people will suffer. Unemployment is the highest in 50 years. Where has Narendra Modi gone, where has he hidden? The President of Bangladesh gives a contrary statement and Narendra Modi is sitting with him, silent, not a word comes out of his mouth. Where has the 56-inch chest gone?

The Prime Minister used to say... Someone once asked Indira Gandhi, do you lean to the left or the right? Meaning do you lean to the right or the left? Indira Gandhi said- I am the Prime Minister of India, I neither lean to the right nor to the left, I stand straight in the middle. This new Prime Minister of ours bows straight ahead... This is the truth of India. And this is a battle of ideology. You people are the army, ‘Babbar Sher’. Someone said- Rahul Gandhi went on ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. I want to ask you a question, could Rahul Gandhi have gone on ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ without you? So, you should say, we all went on ‘Bharat Yatra’ and Rahul Gandhi went with us. You have power, our ideology has power and the country wants you. The country is fed up. You will get to see in Bihar elections. Ask the people of Maharashtra, they will tell you. How BJP has won the elections in Maharashtra, they will tell you, how it has won. We have asked the Election Commission for the voter list...Maharashtra's voter list, we are tired of asking, till date the Election Commission has not been able to give us the voter list of Maharashtra. This is the truth. But in the coming time, there is going to be a change here. The mood of the people is visible.

So, this is a fight of ideology, you have your ideology, Gandhiji has his ideology. What is the difference between this and RSS' ideology- First of all this Constitution is our ideology (said while showing the copy of the Constitution). It has the ideology of Gandhiji, Ambedkarji, Patelji, Lord Buddha, Narayan Guruji, Guru Nanakji, Kabirji, Basavannaji. This is not a 70-year-old document, this is a thousand-year-old thought and this is yours. Your blood, your sweat, the blood of Congress Party, the sweat of Congress Party has made this Constitution for the country and today it is being attacked.

There is an attack on institutions. Agniveer, Adani-Ambani getting all the wealth of the country… all this is an attack on the Constitution. Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that all the wealth of India should be concentrated in the hands of two-three people. Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that in every institution of India, there should be people from one organization, RSS. Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that the Vice Chancellors of all the universities of India should be from RSS. Nowhere in this Constitution is it written that the other languages of India - Tamil, Bengali should be suppressed, it is not written anywhere. But RSS and BJP are attacking this Constitution every day and only the Congress Party can stop them. Other parties cannot stop them, you see, because this is a battle of ideology. A party which does not have ideology, does not have clarity, cannot stand against BJP-RSS. Only the party which has ideology can compete with RSS and BJP and only that party will defeat RSS and BJP.

Remember one thing before independence, don't forget - in the freedom struggle we did not just fight the British, we fought against the ideology of the British and the RSS. All these RSS people, their ideology is not the ideology of freedom struggle. The day the Constitution was implemented, the day this book was written, that day the RSS burnt this Constitution in Ramlila Maidan. It is written in this Constitution that the flag of our country will be the tricolor. For years, the RSS did not salute the tricolor. This is true. Whatever they say today, their ideology is against the Constitution, they want to end democracy. They want to control all the institutions of India and want Ambani, Adani to get all the wealth of India and we...our ideology says that this country belongs to every caste, every religion, every language. The institutions of this country do not belong to any one organization, nor to the Congress Party. They belong to the people of this country and the people of this country should have control over those institutions. This fight is going on.

A few days ago, BJP passed the Waqf Bill in the Lok Sabha. The Waqf Bill is an attack on the Freedom of Religion, an attack on the Constitution... ‘Organiser’, which is their newspaper... they write in ‘Organiser’ that we are going to attack the land of the Christian community... we have Sikh brothers, they will come to you too. So don't think that this is not an attack on you and that this is anti-Constitution and anti-Freedom of Religion Act and everyone in the country should know this.

So, we want that every community, every religion, every language gets respect, a place in this country. We want that this country belongs to all people and every religion, every caste, every language benefits from this country. Here Julie ji is behind, where are you, where is Julie ji, where is Tikaram Julie ji brother? Call him (called Tikaram Julie ji). Tikaram Julie ji is our CLP from Rajasthan, he is a Dalit. He went to the temple. After he went to the temple, BJP leaders got the temple cleaned, washed and they call themselves Hindus! They do not give a Dalit person the right to go to the temple and when he goes, then they get the temple washed. This is not our religion. We also call ourselves Hindus, but this is not our religion.

Our religion is one that respects every person, gives respect to every person and this thing, whether it is against Dalits or backwards, is hidden inside the heart of every BJP worker. This is the difference between you and them. Whether Dalit, tribal, backward, woman, minority, you respect everyone. Every worker of ours respects every person of India. Their hearts are filled with hatred. They cannot say it in the 21st century because there is a Constitution, but in their hearts, whatever they did with Julie Sahab, they want to do the same with all of you. This is their truth and the fight is about this.

For us all people are human beings, we love all people, we respect all people. For them, they are different. Someone is a Dalit, he should not go to the temple. Someone is a cobbler, he should not become a software engineer. Someone is a son of a poor farmer, he should not learn English. We do not want such an India and we will not let it happen.

The last thing I want to tell you is about the organization. There have been many meetings of the Congress Working Committee and the senior leaders of the Party and we want to make our district Presidents the foundation of the Party and we want the Party to empower, give power and responsibility to our District Presidents and district committee. So, we are going to bring these changes in the Congress Party. We are going to make the district committee and the District President the foundation of the Party.

In the end, you all have to fight and I know it is not easy because they have money, they have all the institutions of India, they have everything, but we will win because we have truth and the love of the people of the country. So, there is no need to panic. You will see what the Congress Party is going to do to BJP and RSS in the coming times.

Finally, I would request all Congress members from all our states that it is your responsibility to defend the Constitution. It is your responsibility to defend the ideology of the Congress Party and I am proud that you do it every single day against great odds. Thank you very much! Namaskar!”