It was in the same month. On Monday, July 1, Rahul Gandhi gave his first speech in the Parliament as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He presented his point by showing a copy of the Constitution and a picture of Lord Shiva and mentioned Abhay Mudra. Rahul’s style was discussed a lot. At the end of the month, Rahul once again spoke on the budget on Monday and cornered the government on many issues. He again mentioned Lord Shiva but the word ‘Chakravyuh’ remained central in his speech.
Rahul Gandhi said, ‘The ‘Chakravyuh’ that has been created has harmed crores of people. We will break this Chakravyuh. The biggest way to break it is caste census, which you all are afraid of. INDIA will pass the guaranteed legal MSP in this house. We will pass the caste census in this house and show it to you.’
Finance minister held his head after listening to Rahul’s speech
There was a moment in Rahul Gandhi’s 46-minute speech when the Finance Minister held his head after listening to Rahul. Since the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi’s entire focus has been on Agniveer Yojana, unemployment and wooing the backward and Dalits. For this, he is constantly stressing on caste census. These issues dominated his speech even while speaking on the budget.
Rahul said, ‘This budget halwa is being distributed. Not a single OBC-tribal-Dalit officer is seen in it. What is happening Sir? The country’s halwa is being distributed. 73 percent is not there in it.’ Nirmala Sitharaman held her head after listening to Rahul Gandhi’s speech. She said, ‘You people are eating halwa and the rest of the country is not getting halwa.’
‘Only 2-3% are getting Halwa’
Rahul Gandhi said that 20 officers have prepared the country’s budget but only one of them is a minority and one is an OBC. There is not a single Dalit or tribal in it. Referring to the halwa ritual before the budget, Rahul Gandhi alleged that in this government only 2-3 percent people are preparing halwa and the same number of people are eating it and the rest of India is not getting it.
Rahul said, ’90-95 percent people want caste census. Everyone has to find out what our share is. Who distributes, the same 2-3 percent people, who gets, the same 2-3 percent people. The Finance Minister is smiling. It’s amazing. This is no laughing matter Madam. This is no laughing matter. This is caste census.’
JDU got support on caste census
Rahul Gandhi is constantly making his election strategy around caste census. Congress has also benefited from this in the elections. Congress and India alliance is constantly promising to conduct caste census if it comes to power. Rahul also reiterated this in the Parliament, which also got the support of JDU.
JDU has been in favour of caste census from the beginning. Nitish has got this work done in Bihar while being the Chief Minister. That is why perhaps Rahul is constantly attacking the BJP’s sore spot, which he has given a new color by linking it to ‘Chakravyuh’.
Rahul showed the photo in the house for the second time
This is the second time after becoming the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha that Rahul Gandhi tried to put forth his point by showing a photo and the speaker refused. Rahul Gandhi, referring to the Chakravyuh structure of the Mahabharata war, said that it has fear and violence and Abhimanyu was trapped and killed by six people. He described the Chakravyuh as Padmavyuh and said that it is like an inverted lotus.
Rahul said, ‘A new Chakravyuh has been prepared, that too in the shape of a lotus, which PM Modi wears on his chest these days. Abhimanyu was killed by 6 people, whose names were Drona, Karna, Kripacharya, Kritavarma, Ashwasthama and Shakuni. Even today there are 6 people in the middle of the Chakravyuh. At the very centre of the Chakravyuh, 6 people control it, just like 6 people controlled it at that time, similarly 6 people are controlling it even today.
‘You do not let the food provider come out of the chakravyuh’
On this statement of Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla interrupted him and reminded him that the name of a person who is not a member of this House should not be taken. On this, Rahul Gandhi said that if they want that he should not take the names of Ajit Doval, Adani and Ambani, then he will not do so. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the people of the country have been trapped in a Chakravyuh by the Modi government, in which farmers and youth are the worst sufferers.
He said, ‘The farmers, whom you do not let come out of this chakravyuh, you have not given them anything. They had asked for one thing…MSP. You have stopped them at the border. Till date the road is closed, no one is ready to talk to them, they came here to meet me but you are not letting them in.
“I’ll tell you the facts, Sir.”
On this, the speaker said that you should not tell lies in the House. Rahul said, ‘I will tell you the facts.’ The speaker said, ‘You tell your members not to blame the House. I speak from the record.’ Rahul Gandhi said, ‘A delegation of farmers came to meet me, I was told that the farmers will not be allowed to come inside, when I went to meet them, they were allowed to come inside. This is a fact. Now I don’t know if there was any miscommunication, that is a different matter. But the fact is that when I went there with the media, the doors of the Parliament opened for them.’
‘The decorum of the House was violated’
Om Birla said, ‘Questions should not be raised on the busy schedule of the House like this. Whom to let in and whom not to let in is the jurisdiction of the Speaker. When this information came, you met him, but the decorum of the House was violated in that. Apart from the member, no other person in the House can give a byte and he gave a byte in your presence. Rahul said that this is a technicality, I did not know this.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinet raised questions on this statement of the Speaker and posted photos of actresses in Parliament on X and wrote, ‘These actresses are allowed to give bytes but not farmers! Why? This country belongs to actors, not farmers? These photos are from September 2023, when many film stars were called to Parliament to see the new Parliament, even then the Speaker was Om Birla ji.’
BJP linked Chakravyuh to the insult of Hinduism
Not only did Rahul Gandhi have a spat with the speaker, but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju also condemned his statement. He said, ‘I understand that representatives of 140 crore people sit in the Lok Sabha. The proceedings of the Lok Sabha are governed by traditions and rules. Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly reminded that whatever you say, do it according to the rules. But he has said nonsense by ignoring the rules. No one can be above the House, the Constitution and the country. Rahul Gandhi has not even taken care of the dignity of his post.’
The way Rahul described Chakravyuh as Padmavyuh and described it as an inverted lotus, BJP condemned it and linked it to the insult of Hinduism, which Rahul denied. But Rahul made it clear that he will continue to corner the government on the basis of his agenda.
Rahul said- middle class is facing the brunt of ‘tax terrorism’
While Prime Minister Modi described the budget as strengthening the middle class, Rahul Gandhi called it ‘tax terrorism’ and said that it is a blow to the middle class. This time in the budget, the burden of short and long term capital gain tax has been increased on those who invest in gold, silver, mutual funds, stock market and property. This has changed the entire mathematics of tax. Rahul surrounded the government on this issue, but Prime Minister Modi has been claiming that he has benefited the middle class the most.
Rahul is trying to break into BJP’s vote bank
Congress has performed better than BJP in rural and semi-urban seats. In rural areas, BJP has lost 49 seats compared to 2019, while in semi-urban seats, BJP has got 10 seats less than the last election, but this lead is not as much in urban seats. In 2019, BJP’s lotus bloomed in 35 urban seats of the country, which has now decreased by 4 seats to 31. Rahul is trying to break into this strongest vote bank of BJP, for which he is calling the middle class surrounded by ‘tax terrorism’.
(Input: Aaj Tak Bureau)