New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) The BJP on Monday hit out at the Congress for its double standards on promoting the marginalised sections of society, accusing the “feudal” party of using President Mallikarjun Kharge as a mere rubber stamp and mascot of Dalit empowerment.

Pointing to Kharge’s announcement that Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will decide the Karnataka Congress feud between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivkumar, BJP leader Amit Malviya said, “Kharge’s statement today was not just politically embarrassing. It was an unfiltered glimpse into the feudal culture of the Congress party.”

In a message on X, Malviya said, “The Congress lectures the country on social justice, but within its own structure, Dalit leaders are too often treated as placeholders, shields, or electoral mascots, never as independent centres of power.”

Malviya, in charge of the BJP’s National Information and Technology Department, said, “Even during the UPA years, Dalit faces were elevated symbolically while all consequential political and organisational power remained concentrated within the coterie around the Gandhis.”

Citing several instances of alleged use of Congress Dalit leaders as sacrificial candidates for losing battles, Malviya said, “When the outcome is predetermined, Dalit leaders are pushed to the front. But when it comes to actual decision-making and control, the dynasty takes over.”

The BJP leader said, “Today, Mallikarjun Kharge removed all remaining doubt that he is merely a rubber-stamp Congress president when he publicly declared that Rahul Gandhi will decide the internecine feud in the Karnataka Congress.”

“Think about the insult embedded in that statement. The Congress president, a Dalit leader, openly admitted that the real authority lies elsewhere, with the Gandhi family,” he said.

“But this is not new. The Congress has a long history of using Dalits as a political convenience while denying them real power and agency. When the party wants a sacrificial candidate for a losing battle, it suddenly discovers ‘social justice,” he said.

“Examples are everywhere: Sushilkumar Shinde was fielded in impossible electoral situations and sidelined when power equations were settled; Meira Kumar was made the presidential candidate in 2017 in a contest Congress knew it would lose comfortably; In Karnataka itself, despite Kharge’s stature and decades of experience, the Congress high command repeatedly chose Gandhi family loyalists over him for real authority,” said Malviya.

–IANS

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