New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS): BJP Rajya Sabha member and former Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Narhari Amin on Thursday refuted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not born into the Other Backward Class Community (OBC)
Amin, who left the Congress in 2012 and joined the BJP, termed the allegations "baseless" and "unfounded".
"I was serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat in the Congress government when the government of Gujarat notified Modh-Ghanchi as OBC on 25th July 1994. This is the same caste our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to. Rahul Gandhi is insulting the OBC communities by cooking up mindless lies on this issue. This decision, and the subsequent Government of India notification came when Narendra Modi was not even MP or MLA forget being CM," he added
"I demand Rahul Gandhi to immediately withdraw his lies. He should stop defaming OBCs and also apologise to the people of Gujarat for being filled with hate towards our popular Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
Gandhi, during his Odisha leg of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, had accused the Prime Minister of ‘misleading’ the nation by identifying himself as an OBC member. He said that Modi’s Ghanchi caste was included in the OBC list after BJP government came to power in Gujarat.
However, Amin shared the official Gazette notification to refute Gandhi's claims on Modi’s OBC status.
Rubbishing the 'blatant lies' of Congress leader, BJP leaders said that official records in Gazette show that the notification, released in 1999, listed Narendra Modi’s caste as OBC. This came about two years, before Modi assumed the post of Gujarat Chief Minister.
The government document clearly establishes the truth and goes to debunk the 'brazen lies' of Rahul Gandhi, the BJP said and accused him of spreading fake propaganda and deceiving the public.
Gandhi, during Nyay Yatra in Odisha, had claimed that PM Modi was not born in OBC community and hence, was against the welfare of OBCs despite them comprising 50 per cent of the country’s population.