Rahul Gandhi alleged at an Aurangabad (Kutumba) rally that “10% control the Army,” saying 90% from backward, Dalit and Adivasi communities are excluded — sparking controversy ahead of Bihar polls.
Rahul Gandhi Targets Nitish Kumar
Rahul Gandhi intensified the Bihar campaign trail on Tuesday when he accused a small elite of controlling India’s top institutions, claiming “10% control the Army” while “90%” — he said — remain absent from positions of power. Speaking at a rally in Aurangabad’s Kutumba during his Voter Adhikar Yatra, the Lok Sabha leader of the opposition framed the remark as part of a larger critique of social and institutional exclusion affecting backward, Dalit and Adivasi communities.
The core of Rahul Gandhi’s argument focused on representation: he said that wealth, jobs and influence concentrate in the hands of a narrow social slice — often described in the speech as upper castes — while the majority, including extremely backward classes, are largely “nowhere to be found” in corridors of power. He used examples of the judiciary and the Army to underline his point that institutional access remains uneven, a line likely intended to resonate with voters anxious about fairness, social inclusion and employment.
On the campaign front, Rahul linked this claim directly to governance in Bihar, blaming the Nitish Kumar government for failing to generate quality jobs. He argued that the state’s youth are forced into low-paid manual labour across India — building roads, tunnels and factories — rather than finding sustainable employment at home. This argument ties into long-running voter concerns about unemployment and migration for work, and positions the Congress critique around economic dignity and state accountability.
