Chirag Paswan hits back at Rahul Gandhi’s caste discrimination remarks

In response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks on caste discrimination, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan on Saturday (August 29, 2026) demanded that those who were in power before the BJP regime should explain why discrimination against Dalits still persists in society.

Mr. Paswan was speaking on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks on the purification ritual at a venue in Uttarakhand where party president Mallikarjun Kharge had addressed a gathering at Haldwani’s Ramlila ground on August 8, 2026. Mr. Gandhi, on Saturday, asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “file an FIR against those who conducted the purification ritual”. He said that what was done there was equivalent to “untouchability” and that Dalits across the country face such incidents.

Meanwhile, he also demanded the resignation of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader, Santosh Kumar Suman from the Bihar Cabinet after the party, an NDA ally, sought a review of the reservation policy and sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Mr. Suman and his father, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Jitan Ram Manjhi, both on Saturday, however, asked for Mr. Paswan’s resignation first and asked him to “properly understand” what they had said earlier on the issue of reservation that had triggered rift among ruling NDA allies.

Mr. Paswan, while speaking to media persons, strongly defended caste-based reservation, calling it an “unyielding constitutional right rather than charity”.

While saying further that reservation remains fully necessary because caste-based discrimination and social inequalities have not disappeared from modern society, Mr. Paswan asserted that “reservation, gifted by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the Constitution, cannot be abolished or undermined by any power on earth because groups or protesters demand it”. “If discrimination continued in society despite this, it implies that they (who ruled the country for long) too, failed to strengthen the foundations effectively”, he said.

Defending the constitutional basis for reservation, Mr. Paswan added that “it stems from social discrimination and untouchability, not economic criteria”. “Those who seeks change in its basis, must change the Constitution”.

Mr. Paswan further said, “he (Mr. Suman) should resign first (from the Cabinet) before demanding this”. “The basis of reservation was social discrimination and it should not be viewed from an economic perspective… discussing it from an economic perspective goes against the Constitution”, reiterated the Union Minister.

Mr. Suman responded to Mr. Paswan on Saturday in a post on social media handle X, “as far as the issue of my resignation, I’m ready for this, but my younger brother (Chirag Paswan) should start this by resigning first. My younger brother should understand better that I had never ever spoken about the creamy-layer, neither had talked about ending the reservation but, of sub-categorisation in reservation regime and both should not be mixed to confuse people… .” His father Jitan Ram Manjhi in Gaya on Saturday too defended what he had said earlier.

“He (Chirag Paswan) should resign first, and then we all will follow him… he must understand properly what Santosh Suman had said…”. “Those who have been left behind in society should get the benefits of reservation as the time has changed… it’s time for Gen-Z and people’s aspiration”, Mr. Suman added while speaking to presspersons.