Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday urged all national and Tamil parties to oppose the Centre's proposed delimitation bill in the Parliament, alleging that backing the legislation would amount to a betrayal of the people.
Speaking to reporters at Mamallapuram near Chennai, the senior Congress leader alleged that the "BJP is attempting to carry out delimitation, which is designed to disenfranchise and take away power from the Tamil people".
Such a bid to take away power from Tamil people is a BJP "conspiracy," he further claimed.
Gandhi was here to take part in the party's brainstorming session with District Congress Committee presidents appointed and trained under the party's restructuring and rejuvenation plan.
"Every single Tamil party, national party should defeat delimitation (bill) in Parliament," he said.
Likewise, he alleged that anybody who supports delimitation betrays Tamil Nadu, allowing RSS-BJP to attack the state's people and its future.
Any political party or person who is supporting the BJP in its quest to pass the delimitation bill is betraying the people of Tamil Nadu, and history will remember them as the '21st-century Ettappan,' he claimed.
The 18th-century Tamil ruler 'Ettappan' became synonymous with betrayal as he was said to be instrumental in the capture and killing of iconic freedom fighter Veerapandia Kattabomman by the Britishers, he said.
Addressing office-bearers at the valedictory of the 10-day training camp for DCC presidents under a scheme called SSA, Gandhi, party sources said, denounced groupism and said it was a stumbling block for growth. He batted for intra-party unity.
Functionaries who did not embrace and take along everyone and slog for the party's growth by focusing on field work have no place in the organisation, the top leader said.
Earlier, Gandhi met the families that have lost their loved ones to NEET-related suicides in Tamil Nadu and asserted that students are told to work honestly in a system that is not honest with them.
Interacting at Mamallapuram with the relatives of those who took the extreme step vis-a-vis NEET, Gandhi said: "Nothing is more painful than seeing a parent grieve their child.
Behind every young life lost is a family carrying pain that will never leave them and serious questions about a broken education system. Leaked papers. Cancelled exams. Years of preparation destroyed overnight. Our students are told to work honestly in a system that is not honest with them".
"The tears of parents who have lost their children, their wailing—there is no greater sorrow than this. This grief will live with them forever—and along with it remain many questions about this broken and corrupt education system," he said in a post on X.
Referring to paper leaks and cancelled exams, he said, "Prime Minister has the audacity to talk about forgiving the students".
He further said, "Has he even met a single grieving family who has lost their child, or those whose entire savings, life, time, and dreams have been snatched away by paper leaks? The answer is no! India's students do not need the Prime Minister's forgiveness—Modi ji should apologise to them".
Gandhi, after completing his party-related engagements at Mamallapuram, boarded a flight to Delhi from Chennai.
(With inputs from PTI)
