"Lies are BJP's jewels, you are wearing them": MP Cong Chief Patwari retaliates against Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's tweet

Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) [India], May 28 (ANI): Retaliating to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over his recent tweet calling Rahul Gandhi and Congress the "biggest brand ambassadors of lies and fraud" in the country, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari on Wednesday said that lies are the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) jewels and the union minister is wearing them.
Patwari also highlighted that Rahul Gandhi talks about justice and social concerns in the country and cautions Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the necessary changes for the country.
Speaking to reporters in Jabalpur, Patwari said, "I would like to ask Dharmendra Pradhan that Rahul Gandhi set a vision of the caste census in front of this country. The BJP kept mocking and opposing it. The entire BJP was serving hatred. But finally, Rahul Gandhi's point of a caste census was accepted by your government. Is it not the truth?... Rahul Gandhi plays the role of the opposition. He talks about love, justice and social concerns in the country. He cautions PM Modi about the necessary changes for the country. Lies are BJP's jewels, and Dharmendra Pradhan is wearing them."
Taking to social media platform X, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said the "royal family" of the opposition party has "always deceived" the Scheduled Castes (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) and accused the Congress leaders of using the "imported toolkit" to spread lies in the country.
"Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress party have become the biggest brand ambassadors of lies and fraud in the country today. The royal family of Congress has always deceived SC, ST and OBC, but the prince (Rahul Gandhi) does not know the anti-Dalit history of his own family. That is why every day the Congress, on the basis of an imported toolkit, presents a bundle full of lies for the prince," Pradhan said in a post on X.
He also alleged that during the long rule of Congress, the party had deprived the Dalits and OBCs of their rights.
The Union Minister said this while replying to a post by Rahul Gandhi in which the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had claimed that the Modi government was sidelining qualified SC/ST/OBC candidates by labelling them "Not Found Suitable" (NFS) in faculty recruitments.
"'Not Found Suitable' is the new Manuism now. Qualified SC/ST/OBC candidates are being deliberately 'disqualified' - to keep them away from education and leadership. Babasaheb had said: Education is the biggest weapon for equality. But the Modi government is busy blunting that weapon," Rahul's post read.
Pradhan further alleged that during the UPA-led government, Congress deprived SC/ST/OBCs of their rights.
"When the UPA government left in 2014, 57% SC, 63% ST and 60% OBC teacher posts were vacant in central universities. Prime Minister Modi's government has filled these posts as soon as it came to power. Also, the Modi government increased the number of teacher posts from 16,217 to 18,940 in 2014. The number of vacant posts, which was 37% in 2014 is 25.95% today and the process of filling these vacant posts is still going on in the government of Prime Minister Modi," the minister said, rebutting Rahul Gandhi's claim.
He claimed that during the Congress-led UPA government only 83 SC, 14 ST and 166 OBC faculty were in IITs, whereas only 261 SC, 72 ST and 334 appointments were made in NITs (National Institute of Technology).
"Whereas during the Modi government's tenure from 2014-24, 398 SC, 99 ST and 746 OBC teachers were appointed in IITs and 929 SC, 265 ST and 1510 OBC teachers were appointed in NITs. The Modi government itself abolished the requirement of PhD for Assistant Professor," he added.
Pradhan further said, "The NFS - 'Not Found Suitable' that Rahul Gandhi is talking about, was the result of the anti-Dalit, anti-deprived Congress thinking that did politics in the name of Babasaheb."
But after the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teacher's Cadre) Act, 2019, brought during the Modi government, made the phenomenon of 'NFS' a history, he said.
"Now the posts reserved for SC, ST and OBC classes will not be filled by any other class, this is the gift of Prime Minister Modi. Along with this, Modi's government has also ended the bottlenecks in the reservation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, socially and economically backward classes, which the previous Congress governments could never do," he said. (ANI)