Former Congress president and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, shared a video on Monday of his recent visit to a Dalit household in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur, where he cooked food with Ajay Tukaram Sanade and his family.
Taking to microblogging site X (formerly known as Twitter), the former Congress president stressed the fact that true social inclusion can only be realised when every Indian embraces a spirit of brotherhood. The video has gone viral on social media.
"The Constitution gives participation and rights to the Bahujans, and we will protect that Constitution. But true inclusion and equality of all in the society will be possible only when every Indian makes efforts with the feeling of brotherhood in his heart," Gandhi wrote.
In the viral video, the Rae Bareli MP can be seen participating in cooking traditional food alongside the Dalit couple and trying to learn more about the ‘Dalit kitchen’.
In his post on X, the former Congress chief said, “Even today very few people know about Dalit kitchen. As Shahu Patole ji said, "No one knows what Dalits eat."
Gandhi, in his post, said he spent his afternoon with the Dalit couple (Ajay Tukaram Sanade and Anjana Tukaram Sanade), trying to know what they eat, how they cook, and what their social and political significance is.
The Rae Bareli MP said Ajay Tukaram Sanade and his wife invited him to his home in Kolhapur with great respect and gave him a chance to help in cooking 'Harbharyachi Bhaji', a vegetable of chickpea greens and 'tuvar dal' with brinjal.
“He invited me to his home in Kolhapur, Maharashtra with great respect and gave me a chance to help him in the kitchen. Together we made 'Harbharyachi Bhaji', a vegetable of chickpea greens and 'tuvar dal' with brinjal,” Gandhi said.
As they cooked together, Gandhi listened to the Sanade family's personal experiences with caste-based discrimination and discussed lack of awareness about Dalit food culture and the importance of documenting it.
“Talking about Patole ji and the Sanade family’s personal experiences with caste and discrimination, we discussed the lack of awareness about Dalit cuisine and the importance of documentation of this culture,” he said.
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