Uprooted

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi recently told a meeting of dalit leaders and students that the biggest problem with the community is lack of leaders which has been exploited by people such as Mayawati. Exhorting his party men to let leaders from the grass roots emerge as true champions of the dalits, Gandhi urged the Congress workers to look for such sons of soil. What he probably overlooked was that the two prominent dalit faces in the Congress who shared the dais with him didn't have any link to grass-root politics. One was chairman of the National Commission for SC/ST and former IAS officer P L Punia, the other was Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer and former secretary of the National Advisory Council, K Raju.