‘Two CMs were arrested…tribal one still behind bars’: Rahul Gandhi slams Centre

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the central government over the arrest of “tribal CM” former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, alleging that whenever someone is tribal or Dalit, they are “automatically framed”.

“Two Chief Ministers were arrested. The tribal CM (Hemant Soren) is still in jail. He was arrested before and is still behind bars. The national media has forgotten him; it doesn’t talk about him… Mayawati is corrupt but not Naveen Patnaik, Lalu Yadav is corrupt…if someone is tribal or Dalit, he is automatically framed,” Gandhi said while addressing a session titled ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Haryana’s Panchkula.

Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in January in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged land scam. While he applied for interim bail several times, the courts have continued to refuse it. The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain his bail petition, noting that Soren, in his plea, has concealed various facts related to the matter.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March this year in connection with the alleged scam in the Delhi excise policy. However, he was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court until June 1.

Drawing the comparison between Kejriwal and Soren’s arrests and bail, the Congress leader further alleged that the “system is aligned against lower castes”.

“I can tell you one thing, the system is aligned against the lower castes, severely and on every level. Look at the corporate system, media system, bureaucracy, military, and education. 90 percent don’t even have representation. And arguments of ‘merit’ are made. How is it that 90 percent of people don’t have merit?” Gandhi questioned.

The incumbent MP from Wayanad claimed that he has been “sitting in the system” since the day he was born and hence, he understands it.

“You cannot hide the system from me. How it works, whom it favours, how it favours, whom it protects, whom it attacks, I know everything because I come from inside the system…When my grandmother was the PM, my father was the PM. When Manmohan Singh was the PM, I used to go to the PM’s house. So I know how the system works from the inside,” he added.