Congress president and leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday took a veiled dig at Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over his now-deleted social media post on the Varna system.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha during the ongoing budget session, Kharge said, “I won’t take the name of the chief minister who was earlier in Congress but now he is in BJP and ‘Laadla’ (Darling) of the party. A BJP chief minister says ‘Farming, cow rearing, and commerce are natural duties of the Vaishya and it is the duty of a Shudra to serve Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas’.”

“The chief minister of this country who speaks such a language should be removed. How can a person who thinks like this will make any rules for the poor? I am not taking anyone’s name,” Kharge added, in an obvious reference to Sarma.

A recent post from the Assam chief minister’s X handle said that serving the Brahmins, Ksatriyas and Vaishyas was the natural duty of the Shudras.

The post was quickly deleted after many pointed to the casteist assertion, which Sarma described as an incorrect translation of a shloka from the Bhagavad Gita.

“As a routine, I upload one shloka of Bhagavad Gita every morning on my social media handles. Till date, I have posted 668 slokas. Recently one of my team members posted a shloka from Chapter 18 verse 44 with an incorrect translation. As soon as I noticed the mistake, I promptly deleted the post. The state of Assam reflects a perfect picture of a casteless society, thanks to the reform movement led by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva. If the deleted post has offended anyone, I sincerely apologise,” Sarma posted on X.

Hitting out at Sarma, Kharge said, “I am appealing to the Prime Minister how you have kept such people in the party. That you are claiming that you will bring social justice. That everyone will get justice. Is this the mentality of your people? It hurts me when people in power say this.”

“I raised this concern because the Prime Minister is present in the House. He will think about it. Later he may call a meeting with the Chief Ministers and will say don’t they do these things? I (Prime Minister) may be defamed but will fall from the public eye,” Kharge added.