Uproar in India over Rahul Gandhi’s call for lower caste winners in beauty pageants

Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has slammed Gandhi’s ‘divisive tactics’ and said several top Indian leaders have lower caste roots

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Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Tamil actress Trisha Krishnan at a press conference in Mumbai in 2022. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 27 Aug 2024

From Priyanka Chopra to Aishwarya Rai, India has always taken pride in its beauty pageant winners-turned superstars. Now, a political debate has erupted with opposition leader Rahul Gandhi asking whether such contests should be more representative of India to include winners from the disadvantaged lower castes.

“I have checked the list of Miss India, which did not have any Dalit, Adivasi [tribal] or OBC [Other Backward Castes] women. Some will talk about cricket or Bollywood. No one will show the cobbler or plumber,” he told a conference honouring India’s Constitution on Saturday.

“Even top anchors in the media are not from the 90 per cent,” he claimed. India could not hope to be called a superpower until such weaker sections representing 90 per cent of the population were represented in all walks of life, Gandhi argued.

India’s Minister of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju was quick to rebuke Gandhi, highlighting that the country’s President Droupadi Murmu hailed from a tribal family and the surname of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has links to Other Backward Castes, with several cabinet ministers sharing similar backgrounds.

“Now, he [Gandhi] wants reservations in Miss India competitions, films, sports! It is not only an issue of ‘Bal Budhi’ [immature thinking], but people who cheer him are equally responsible too!” Rijiju posted on social media X. “Childish wit may be good for entertainment but don’t make fun of backward communities in your divisive tactics,” he said in Hindi.