Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday promised a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price to farmers and a caste census if the INDIA bloc comes to power as he drew a parallel between the current political framework of the NDA government and a “chakravyuh”, the battle formation used to surround fighters in the epic Mahabharata.
A combative Mr. Gandhi, who was speaking during the discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, said the “lotus-shaped” chakravyuh that had been used to kill Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata was being manned by six people in the current scenario and this was what was responsible for the spread of fear in the country.
He said that the Modi-led government has trapped “our youth in a chakravyuh of unemployment and paper leak, farmers in a chakravyuh of debt, middle class in a chakravyuh of tax, MSMEs in a chakravyuh of tax terrorism, jawans in a chakravyuh of Agnipath and SC, ST, OBC and minorities in a chakravyuh of injustice”.
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The Congress leader’s speech saw many acrimonious exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition Benches and even with Speaker Om Birla. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh alleged that the LoP was “misleading” the House, while Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju went to the extent of saying that the Rae Bareli MP had hurt the traditions of the House by questioning the Speaker.
Launching a scathing attack on the Modi government, Mr. Gandhi said that the sole aim of the Budget seemed to be to strengthen the framework of business and political monopoly and that of investigative agencies; the result of this has been the attack on small-scale industries, which in turn has affected the job market for youth.
Questioning the government on what has been done for the youth in the Budget as well as the “silence” on paper leaks, he said that the education budget at 2.5% was the lowest in 20 years. Branding the internship programme announced in the Budget as a joke, as this will be in only be 500 big companies and “99% of our youth have nothing to do”.
The Congress MP said that the “INDIA bloc has taken the first steps to break this chakravyuh and will continue to fight until this atmosphere of fear is replaced with ‘Shiv ji ki Baraat’ (Lord Shiva’s marriage party), where there is equal opportunity, justice, and freedom for all”.
“We break chakravyuhs — independence, constitution, green revolution, MGNREGS are all examples of it,” he said, adding, “The BJP should not mistake India’s youth for Abhimanyu. They are Arjun and will break free from this chakravyuh.”
Mr. Gandhi said that farmers had just sought one thing — legal guarantee on MSP — and the government did not agree to even that.
The LoP claimed that farmers were not allowed to enter the Parliament when they had come to meet him, at which point Speaker Om Birla said: “You will not lie in the House”. To this, Mr. Gandhi clarified that he thought they were not allowed as they could only enter after he went to meet them at the gate.
He said that the middle class, which had possibly been supporting Mr. Modi before the Budget, had been stabbed twice.
“When during the COVID pandemic the Prime Minister asked the middle class to bang plates and switch on mobile lights, they did. But in this Budget, you have stabbed the same middle class in the back with one knife and in the chest with another. The cancellation of indexation and increase in capital gains tax were examples of that,” he said.
However, the Congress leader said that there was a hidden advantage for the INDIA bloc as the middle class was going to leave the BJP and come to this (INDIA Bloc) side.
“You create chakravyuhs and we break them”, and the best way to break chakravyuhs was through the caste census, he said.
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