'We will take reservation beyond 50 percent': Rahul Gandhi clarifies comment amid massive criticisms

"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.

Speaking during an interaction with students and faculty of Georgetown University in 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."

His 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."

Speaking at the event, Gandhi said: "Caste census is a simple exercise to know how the lower castes, backward castes, and Dalits are integrated into the system. Out of the top 200 businesses in India, there is almost no ownership of 90 percent of the population of India."

"In the highest courts of the country, there is almost no participation of 90 percent of India. In the media, there is zero participation of lower castes, OBCs, Dalits," he said.

Explaining the idea behind the caste census, Gandhi said: "We want to understand what their social and financial position looks like...We also want to look at the Indian institutions to have a sense of India's participation in these institutions."

Rahul Gandhi's Sikh rights remarks in the US draws BJP's ire

Speaking at an event in Herndon, Virginia, Gandhi had said, "The fight (in India) is about whether a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a turban...whether a Sikh will be allowed to wear a kada or go to the Gurudwara. That's what the fight is about, and it's not just for Sikhs, but for all religions"

In a jibe soon after the remarks, Union Minister Hardeep Puri said, "I think he needs to do some serious introspection. The Sikh community is a proud and hardworking community but they are also emotional. He has tried to set a misleading narrative."

"I have been wearing a turban and a kada for over sixty years and no one asked me why... I never had a problem," he said.