'Despicable': Jagdeep Dhankar condemns Rahul Gandhi's reservation remark

Dhankhar's comments came a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at Rahul Gandhi for his comment on reservation and religious freedom in India.

During an interaction with students and faculty of Georgetown University in US's Washington DC on Tuesday, Gandhi said: "We will think of scrapping reservations when India is a fair place and India is not a fair place."

Addressing the third batch of the Rajya Sabha Internship Programme at Parliament House on Thursday, Dhankar accused the Congress leader of having no idea of Bharat, the Constitution, and national interest.

Dhankar said he was sure people's hearts must be bleeding at what they had seen.

"Imagine, the ultimate sacrifice has been given by how many in getting this freedom, in protecting this freedom, in protecting the nation. Our brothers and sisters are also involved in combat positions. Mothers have lost their sons,  wives have lost their husbands. We can't ridicule our nationalism," Dhankhar said.

"Every Indian outside the country has to be an ambassador of this nation. How painful that one who holds a Constitutional position is doing just the reverse of it. Nothing can be more condemnable, despicable and intolerable than that you become part of enemies of the nation! They do not understand the value of freedom. They do not understand that this country has a civilisational depth of 5,000 years," he added.

Dhankhar said the Constitution was sacred and was formed after three years of painstaking work through debate, dialogue and deliberation.

"The challenges before them were Himalayan, insurmountable. The issues were divisive, there could not be easy consensus. They worked for it, they worked for us. And now, some people want to divide our nation. This is ignorance in extremity," the Vice President said.

Amid heavy criticism over his remark which has been perceived as anti-reservation, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday issued a clarification saying his party would "take reservation beyond the limit of 50 percent".

"Yesterday someone misrepresented my statement that I am against reservation. But let me make it clear – I am not against reservation. We will take reservations beyond the limit of 50 percent," he said during an interview at the National Press Club in the US.

His reservation remark sparked huge controversy back home with Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying it exposed Congress' 'anti-reservation face' and challenged the LoP stating no one would be able to undo reservations as long as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power.

In a long X post, the Home Minister wrote, "Standing with forces that conspire to divide the country and making anti-national statements have become a habit for Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party. Whether it is supporting the JKNC's anti-national and anti-reservation agenda in J&K or making anti-India statements on foreign platforms, Rahul Gandhi has always threatened the nation's security and hurt sentiments.

"Rahul Gandhi's statement lays bare the Congress's politics of causing rifts on the lines of regionalism, religion, and linguistic differences. By speaking about abolishing reservations in the country, Rahul Gandhi has once again brought the Congress's anti-reservation face to the forefront. The thoughts that were in his mind eventually found their way out as words. I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that as long as the BJP is there, neither can anyone abolish reservations nor can anyone mess with the nation's security."