“I am looking forward to this debate… I hope he [Rahul Gandhi] doesn’t run away from the debate the way he ran away from Amethi…” said Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader Abhinav Prakash on Monday. The BJYM Vice-President has been nominated by the BJP to debate Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
An invitation was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, last week, by two prominent jurists and a senior journalist for a public debate in the midst of the ongoing Lok Sabha election.
The invitees proposed, “the public debate would set a great precedent, not just by educating the public, but also in projecting the true image of a healthy and vibrant democracy”.
Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi accepted the debate invitation a couple of days later.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded too.
The youth wing of the BJP, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) however, nominated a young leader to take on the Wayanad MP in the proposed public debate.
TEJASVI SURYA NAMED ABHINAV PRAKASH TO DEBATE RAHUL
BJYM’s president and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya announced that Abhinav Prakash, the Vice-President of BJYM, will take on Rahul Gandhi in the debate.
Surya highlighted Abhinav Prakash’s background and struggles.
“It will be an enriching debate between a political scion and a common youngster who has come up the hard way,” said Tejasvi Surya.
The announcement instantly gave way to curiosity about who Abhinav Prakash is and what made the BJYM go for the young leader and entrust him to represent the ruling BJP.
WHO IS ABHINAV PRAKASH?
Abhinav Prakash is a young and dynamic leader of the BJYM.
Prakash belongs to the Pasi caste, and is a Dalit from Raebareli, the constituency where Rahul Gandhi is contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Raebareli has a substantial Dalit population.
Abhinav Prakash is the right person to engage in a debate with Rahul Gandhi, as he represents the “new India” under PM Modi, according to Surya.
Abhinav Prakash is not just a politician, but a well-known academic too. He writes columns for national dailies in both English and Hindi.
Prakash’s academic and professional experience could have been a reason for his selection for the debate.
An alumnus of the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has been serving as an assistant professor of economics at Delhi University’s Ramjas College since December 2022.
Before joining Ramjas College, he taught economics at the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), and Delhi’s Zakir Hussain College.
On his popular YouTube channel, Abhinav Prakash covers a wide array of social, economic, and political topics related to India. From interacting with scholars and experts like Sushant Sareen, J Sai Deepak, Ajit Dutta and Meenakshi Jain, he has also talked about OBC and Dalit issues at length.
The channel, called the Urbanchatterati, is “dedicated to quality discussions on untouched issues in the Indian public discourse”.
Abhinav, who originally hails from Uttar Pradesh, is seen active on the ground, addressing seminars and rallies across India.
Abhinav Prakash has visited shrines and religious places, like Madurai’s Meenakshi Temple, Puri’s Jagannath Temple, Rameshwaram’s Ramanathaswamy Temple, and put up photos on Instagram.
Prakash is known to be a close political and ideological associate of Tejasvi Surya, who nominated him for the Rahul Gandhi debate.
While BJP MP Tejasvi Surya nominated Abhinav Prakash, he also slammed Rahul Gandhi, who “wanted to debate with PM Modi”.
“But debates are done with people of the same designation. In this case, Modi ji is the PM & the PM candidate from NDA. Rahul Gandhi is neither a PM candidate for Congress nor for the INDI alliance. So, it is impossible for a debate between the two… Abhinav Prakash is the Yuva Morcha worker, and we have deputed him (for debate)…,” Surya said on Monday.
Surya not only hailed Abhinav Prakash as “a distinguished leader of the youth wing” but also as “an articulate spokesman for the policies and reforms implemented by the government”.
Reacting to his nomination, Abhinav Prakash thanked Tejasvi Surya for deputing him to debate with Rahul Gandhi.
“I am looking forward to this debate. I am from Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi and his family have represented the state for so long. I hope he doesn’t run away from the debate the way he ran away from Amethi. Otherwise, who knows, he will have to run away from Raebareli as well, in the next elections…,” Prakash said.
Nonetheless, the debate, if it takes place, could surely turn out to be something interesting. The spectacle would see the self-made Dalit academic from UP taking on the scion of the biggest political family, who is trying to keep a family bastion, Raebareli, from slipping away.