After the Congress Shudra/OBC Bhagedary Nyay Sammelan ( Participatory Justice Conference) in Talkatora stadium of Delhi took place on 25 July, 2025 a new social justice discourse began in India. In 140 years of existence of the Congress party it was the first ever Shudra/OBC conference with a path breaking initiative of Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition Leader of Lok Sabha and well known Congress leader from Gandhi-Nehru family.
As a non-Congress special invitee I spoke in that conference. My seven minute speech has rattled the RSS/BJP ranks. What I spoke was as under:
“I really congratulate this revolutionary movement in congress history. Congress liberated us, particularly the OBCs Dalits, Adivasis from the British. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawarlal Nehru, Sardar, Vallavad Patel, and Ambedkar liberated us from the oppressive British. But after that, there was no leader of national stature, international stature, to liberate us from the caste oppression of RSS BJP type. And once this RSS/ BJP came to power, ruled for 11 years, all the OBCs started going into that oppressors’ fold saying oppress us more, oppress us more. We will be slaves.
I was crying in my bed. And I was listening to Rahul Gandhi speak about the country and the nation. In (year) 2021, in this very hall, women and men, we were just few hundreds, from the congress party fold, some intellectuals and party leaders, gathered and started this revolutionary movement in OBCs (This refers to 2021 OBC conclave in Talkatora stadium and passing of OBC Delhi declaration). And in the 21 first century, if there is no single leader who can liberate us from this bloody caste, which destroyed us, we will not be liberated because a Modi like leader has come to destroy us. And I found Rahul Gandhi is the only leader who can liberate us from this oppressive, destructive caste system. Today, he started (taking) steps.
His first step was Bharat Yodo Yatra. His second step was Bharat Yodo Nyay Yatra for ourselves. And the third step, he started getting caste census done. This was historic. And I’m the vice chairman of the expert committee that the congress government appointed (to study the Telangana socio,economic, educational, employment, political Caste Survey) data . We have seen Telangana congress data that, you know there are, (more than) 56% OBCs.
The Telangana government asked for 42% reservation for OBCs. Is it just or not? Tell us. Is it okay or not? 42 is okay or not?
42 (percent) we should achieve or not? We should achieve. Why? Because in Telangana, the upper caste are only 9.9%, but they are getting 10% reservation (under EWS quota). Look at the tragedy.
And Rahulji has come to change that entirely. That is a revolution.
Nobody imagined and I think BJP and RSS have never imagined that a person born in the Nehru- Gandhi family would give a slogan “Jai Bapu, Jai Bheem and Jai Samvidhan” (constitution) one day. That is Rahul Gandhi.
So today, to liberate OBCs this meeting is organized. Once OBCs are liberated from BJP, BJP will not be in power. It will never come to power at all.
Rahul Gandhi is facing hundreds of cases. Wherever he goes, there are cases. There are now OBC lawyers , Dalit lawyers, Adivasi lawyers across the country. They must stand up for him and protect him from going to jail. That is our role.
We the intellectuals, the universities, the colleges, the students, and women have a role to play in this revolution. I have never seen a young woman (or man) who stood for women like Rahul Gandhi in my 73 years of life. That is the leader that the same Indira Gandhi, the same Rajiv Gandhi, the same Jawarlal Nehru, whom they are abusing, family produced. Therefore, this is the first historic major Congress meeting of all OBC leaders sitting here on the dais ever since the Congress was born. For the first time because of him.
And lastly, yesterday, I visited Indira Bhavan. I was so thrilled. The moment I entered, there was a big Ambedkar’s photo. There was a Gandhi photo. There was Patel there, and there was Jaharlal Nehru. You know what their caste background is?
Gandhi was from Bania caste. Ambedkar was from Dalit caste. Patel was from Shudra, OBC caste, who liberated my own state from Nizam, and Nehru was from Brahmin caste. Rahul is a mix of all castes today. He’s a mix of all castes, and therefore, he is our liberator.
I SEE HIM LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING IN AMERICA . And we will work with him. I’m an intellectual. I’m a writer. I’m not a congress member.
But as long as I live, my pen will work for writing for Rahul Gandhi and standing for this nation’s liberation”.
Amit Malviya the media head of the BJP says this in his X, while tagging my entire speech.
“The intent of Congress’s “Bhagidari Nyay Sammelan” is under the scanner because of who they chose to promote. Kancha Ilaiah, notorious for his open contempt for Hinduism, its deities, and cultural practices, was given centre stage. His record of insulting Hindu gods and advocating for an Abrahamic shift is no secret. By giving Ilaiah a platform: •Congress has once again exposed its deep-rooted anti-Hindu bias, despite claiming to represent backward Hindu communities. •It’s a calculated attempt to detach OBCs and SCs from their Hindu identity and push them toward a divisive, anti-Hindu narrative. And Rahul Gandhi sharing the stage with Ilaiah isn’t accidental, it’s consistent. He has endorsed Ilaiah’s anti-Hindu books in the past, and now he’s openly legitimising him in front of millions. This is not empowerment. This is a direct insult to Hindu beliefs”.
A Brahminic Hindutva web news portal, The Commune, picks up the thread from Amit Malviya and writes an editorial in which parts of my speech was quoted. It says:
“On 25 July 2025 at the party’s OBC-focused “Bhagidari Nyay Sammelan”, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi shared the stage with anti-Hindu bigot Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd. This is my speech transcription according to the portal:
Look at the Sub-Title: Kancha Ilaiah’s Speech: Glorifying Rahul, Demonizing Hindus
“In his speech, Ilaiah painted a dystopian picture of India under BJP rule while hailing Rahul Gandhi as the messiah of OBCs, “Congress liberated us, particularly the OBC, Dalit, Adivasi, from the British – Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Ambedkar liberated us from the oppressive British, but after that there was no leader of national structure, international structure to liberate us from the caste oppression of RSS BJP type and once this RSS BJP have come to power, rule for 11 years, all the OBCs started going into that oppressors fold that oppress more, we will be slaves.”
He then emotionally declared, “I was crying in my bed, listening to Rahul Gandhi speak in 2021… In the 21st century, if there is no leader to liberate us from this bloody caste system, we will remain oppressed. I found that Rahul Gandhi is the only leader who can liberate us.”
Rahul Gandhi as the “Modern-Day Ambedkar”
Ilaiah went on to compare Rahul Gandhi to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Martin Luther King, claiming, “His Bharat Jodo Yatra, Nyay Yatra, and caste census are revolutionary… He is the mix of all castes – Baniya (Gandhi), Dalit (Ambedkar), OBC (Patel), and Brahmin (Nehru). That’s why he is our liberator.”
He further urged OBCs, Dalits, and Adivasis to rally behind Rahul,
“Once OBCs are liberated from BJP, it will never come to power again… OBC lawyers, Dalit lawyers, and Adivasi lawyers must protect Rahul Gandhi from going to jail.”
The Commune also picks up all other arguments of Amit Malviya that I have been a Hindu hater and the editor picks up quotes from my writings and speeches about some Hindu-Brahminic deities and puts quotations to show me as a demon. In my speech in that conference there was no reference to Hinduism as religion or Hindu deities.
It was a panic reaction to my speech that received unexpected applause from the OBC masses gathered in the stadium and went viral online. Interesting aspect was I was the only person who spoke in English in that meeting. Irrespective of Central, South, North and East OBC Indians all understood that English speech and responded in a manner that no one imagined. Particularly when I said Rahul Gandhi is Martin Luther King Jr, in India of our times, the applause was not only massive, but spontaneous. The masses knew who Martin Luther King was and what they did to black slaves in America. They also seem to have known that he was the only socio-political reformer who got a Nobel Prize for fighting for the liberation of slaves in America.
My speech was a spontaneous one. It generated the mass response, enthusiasm and euphoria in the stadium. I knew that only Rahul could be such a leader in a 140 years old party’s life, who could allow such an exclusive OBC mass meeting of leaders, cadres could take place in the capital city. I know that the black slaves could be liberated only by a determined leader like Martin Luther King Jr and only Rahul could work for the Shudra/OBC liberation within the framework of Indian constitution as Martin Luther King did within the framework of the American constitution. My comparison was apt.
Rahul Gandhi has been facing serious life threatening situations and also cases– ED interrogations, court cases and humiliating abuse by the BJP/RSS leaders and cadre. No opposition leader in any global democratic country is facing as many cases on petty issues as Rahul Gandhi is. To survive the pro-RSS/BJP, leader, cadres and monopoly houses running media attacks needs a thick skinned leader with a commitment to common people. Rahul has been enduring it for the last eleven years quite bravely.
A MAN GROWN IN TRAGEDIES
Rahul has grown in an atmosphere of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi’s brutal and unimagined murder. With the psychological crisis, trauma to enter into politics and survive at an early age in 2004 was a difficult decision. In his childhood and adulthood his life was always fear stricken. Only the ten years of UPA rule from 2004 to 2014 gave that family some confidence. But 2014 the RSS bringing Modi-Monopoly Bania capital combination to power has thrown that family into a much deeper crisis. From then on the RSS/BJP entered into the caste capital hegemonic new game. The Shudra/OBCs got into a new RSS/BJP Dwija cobweb. Modi has been playing a very tricky game with the life and economy of the Shudra/OBCs since then.
The BJP/RSS regime created an atmosphere for him and the family that needs to be understood with a culture ofgrace and positive human will. I think I do have such grace and human will. Hence I compared him with Martin Luther King Jr and the OBC masses understood me and Rahul. I was not indulging in sycophancy for any position of power from him. I did not seek any such position of power when he was in a position to give. My contact with him took place when he had no power.
His own determination made him fight for his own self-respect in a situation of all around attacks from the ruling dispensation at Delhi.
Till 2019 elections he appeared directionless. But once he resigned from the party president position owning the moral responsibility and began to fight as an ordinary member of the party there emerged a new reform-politician in Rahul. He was willing to face martyrdom for the sake of change.
A CHANGE MAKER FROM THAT FAMILY
A new change maker politician was born in Rahul Gandhi’s marathon Bharat Jodo Yatra from 7 September, 2022 to 19 January, 2023. It got synthesized in understanding caste and the Shudra/OBC question in his second Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai, starting from January 24, 2024 and ending on March 16, 2024.
In December 2021 he was to attend an OBC conclave (conference) in the same stadium. But he did not attend because the Congress party had not taken a clear stand on the question of caste census. More than his reading of literature on caste his personal contact with masses, talking to people, leaders and intellectuals, of which the majority Shudra/OBC/Dalit/Adivasi agrarian, artisanal and labouring masses, unemployed youth, in the two yatras, he seems to have formulated a clear idea that Caste is still very strong Indian reality. And also caste oppression does not persist among Dalits only. The Shudra/OBC oppressed status and the indifference of Congress to that massive number of productive forces of India benefited the RSS/BJP combine. Rahul had to take a difficult decision given the history of the party.
The Shudra/OBC masses constitute a vast majority, not just only in numbers but are backward in education, employment and ownership of industrial assets. Particularly they are far behind in English medium education that has become power in the job markets of India. Leave alone the ranks of RSS/BJP, even in his own Congress party no upper caste leader had such ground level touch and the human will to accept the truth as truth by then.
He formulated, perhaps, in his own way that the OBC question is key in Indian transformation. That is where he also learnt how to listen about the caste oppression of people. His Kashimiri Brahmin ancestral background played a role in hiding that truth from him from his childhood. Now he overcame that generation’s caste cultural burqa.
OBC PM HELPING ALL NON-OBCs AND MONOPOLY HOUSES
Whether the OBC Prime Minister Naredra Modi or the RSS Sarsnachalak Mohan Bhagwat had the will to learn the truth as truth is a serious question. They shifted the whole state and private wealth into the hands of the Dwija monopoly Bania houses is a known fact. Earlier many Congress leaders keep on talking as if the Caste, particularly the Shudra/OBC category, does not exist in India. This is pretentious ‘No Caste’ category leadership while using the upper caste privilege for their promotion.
Rahul has come out of such pretensions.
For example, in American history two major leaders emerged to fight racism and human oppression: one was Abraham Lincoln and the second major most reformist leader was Martin Luther King Jr. One fought for black slave liberation from power as the president of America in the 19th century, the second one fought black slave liberation and for their equal rights in a much more organized way, in the 20thcentury. American and global history remembers them much more than the American freedom fighters or presidents. Both of them were shot dead by the white racists.
In fact Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday is celebrated as a national or federal holiday because his contribution is much more important. Why? He was the liberator of most oppressed people in American history. The history of Shudras is a more complicated and long persisted slavery and semi-slavery.
Rahul’s speech in the Delhi Congress OBC Sammelan has shown his evolved understanding of the OBC question.
In my whole English speech there was reference to Hinduism in that Sammelan . How did Amit Malviya and the RSS/BJP media networks saw anti-Hindu talk there? The RSS/BJP ideologues in order to hide their Brahminic caste tirade on the Shudra/OBC food producers use the word Hindu to mislead the Shudra/OBCs. But that does not work for long.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author. His latest book is The Shudra Rebellion.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd 