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'Social Justice 2.0': Mallikarjun Kharge's photo 'blocks' Ambedkar portrait at Congress's meet; BJP calls it 'hypocrisy'

'Social Justice 2.0': Mallikarjun Kharge's photo 'blocks' Ambedkar portrait at Congress's meet; BJP calls it 'hypocrisy'

Time of India24-07-2025
NEW DELHI: Congress party's "Social Justice 2.0" meeting attracted attention for all the wrong reasons after pictures from a party meet showed BR Ambedkar's portrait being pushed aside to make way for
Mallikarjun Kharge
's photograph.
The meeting, ironically, was held to discuss the issues faced by SC, ST and OBC communities, and was attended by top party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Kharge, KC Venugopal and Revanth Reddy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to call out the "hypocrisy" with its IT chief Amit Malviya saying, "Congress never misses a chance to preach about social justice, but their actions speak otherwise. Just look at how Baba Saheb Ambedkar's photo has been pushed to the corner and overshadowed, while Mallikarjun Kharge's picture takes centre stage.
So much for respecting icons of social empowerment. Hypocrisy has truly become Congress's second nature.
"
Congress, which gave the war cry of "Save the Constitution" and has always advocated for a caste-based census, is yet to comment on the matter.
The pictures of the meeting were also shared by the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who termed it "Congress party's Social Justice 2.0".
"Congress party's Social Justice 2.0 —a new movement for social justice, equity and empowerment of the weaker sections has begun in Telangana. Our unwavering fight, spearheaded by Shri @RahulGandhi
for justice is giving voice to the millions from SC, ST, OBC, EWS communities who have been sidelined for decades.
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Despite forming a vast majority of India's population, these communities are glaringly absent from top corporate boards, the judiciary, bureaucracy, and premier institutions," Kharge's X post said.
"Our demand was to conduct a nationwide Caste Census and remove the arbitrary 50% cap on reservations. This Govt has accepted to conduct the Caste Survey under huge public pressure, but without removing the cap. But the scientific manner in which Telangana has conducted its survey must be a role model for the entire nation. Based on this groundbreaking socio-economic survey, our Government in Telangana has recommended 42% reservations for OBCs in local body elections and educational institutions.
This significant bill is currently awaiting the assent of the Hon'ble President of India," it added.
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