Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was left hanging midway through his speech on Tuesday as his microphone lost power. However, this was not in Parliament. This was at the Congress’s Constitution Day event at Delhi’s Talkatora stadium. The Congress leader, who has repeatedly accused the government of ordering his mic to be switched off during the Parliament proceedings, grinned sheepishly as he made multiple attempts to talk into the microphone but couldn’t.
Just before his mic went off, Rahul Gandhi was explaining the need for a caste census in India. Rahul Gandhi was describing which community in India had how much population and their representation. However, before he could complete, the venue appeared to lose power. After the lights at the venue came on, he made multiple attempts to speak into the mic, but it remained turned off.
Rahul Gandhi’s mic gone… Not in Parliament though. This was a #ConstitutionDay event in Delhi.#RahulGandhi #ConstitutionDay2024 #ConstitutionAt75 pic.twitter.com/2CCQqVYUIT
— Abhishek Chakraborty (@deshbhaktbong) November 26, 2024
The Congress supporters gathered at the venue, in order to cheer their leader and fill in the silence, raised slogans of “Rahul Gandhiji zindabad“. The microphone remained off for a good 6-7 minutes. Finally, when the power to the mic was restored, Gandhi resumed his speech in his trademark witty style. “Whenever someone talks about the atrocities committed against Dalits, Adivasis, and the poor for 3,000 years, this is what happens; their mics are turned off.”
“When the mic went off, some of the people here came up and asked me to take a seat. I said that I won’t sit. I shall keep standing here. Turn off the mic as much as you want. But I shall say What I have to,” he said.
During the event he took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said: “I can guarantee you that the Prime Minister has never read the Constitution; else he wouldn’t have been doing what he is every day.”
He also explained why a caste census is needed: “Everyone knows there are 15% Dalits, 8% Adivasis, and 15% minorities. But no one knows how much of the population comprises the Other Backward Classes… But at least 50% is OBC population,” he said.
Â
