———– Lashed out at 10-year rule of Modi which he said resulted in ‘systematic attack on the constitution, on the idea of India’
———– Recites Durood Sharif on Holy Prophet (PBUH) in India’s Lok Sabha
DM Monitoring
New Delhi: The newly-appointed leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi set the critical tone for the INDIA bloc on Monday when he anchored his first speech in the 18th Lok Sabha on the alleged environment of fear perpetuated by the Narendra Modi government over his last two terms.
Gandhi, who was responding to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for systematically deflecting attention from pertinent issues like inflation, job crisis and growing inequality by inducing anxiety among people on emotive issues of faith, even as he said that the Modi government has overseen “systematic attack on the constitution, on the idea of India, and anybody who opposed” BJP’s patronisation of “hate, untruth and violence”.
His critical intervention in the Motion of Thanks debate unfolded amidst dramatic scenes in the Lok Sabha. The BJP MPs hooted Gandhi as he rose to speak with chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Jai Shri Ram”, triggering a similar aggression from the opposition benches. Gandhi, too, responded to the slogans. “Jai Samvidhan,” he said, drawing applause from his party MPs.
Facing frequent interruptions from BJP MPs, Gandhi went on to talk about how different faiths advocated the ideas of non-violence in Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity, but took a dig at BJP leaders as “those who call themselves Hindus” think of spreading only ideas of hate, untruth, and violence throughout the day.
In what resembled his speech alleging a nexus between the Modi government and industrial groups like Adani and Ambani in the 17th Lok Sabha, Gandhi brought out placards of different faiths to elaborate on how all religions believed in the idea of non-violence and to allege that the BJP has sullied the Hindu faith by misinterpreting its core messages and inciting its followers to hate others.
“Daro Mat, Darao Mat (Don’t fear, don’t scare others). This is the central message of all religions, and even Lord Shiva,” Gandhi said.
This prompted both the Prime Minister and Union home minister Amit Shah to intervene. Modi rose up to say, “(what the LoP) said was a very serious subject.
Labeling the whole Hindu society as violent is an extremely serious matter.” Likewise, Shah demanded an apology from Gandhi and added, “There are so many people who call themselves Hindu with pride, and those who had imposed emergency and led the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 have no right to blame others for spreading an environment of fear.”
Gandhi and his party MPs flashed their palms, echoing what they called was “abhay mudra”, an Yogic posture meant to free one of all fears. To many others, the palm is also the Congress’s election symbol.
Taking off from here, Gandhi said that despite all the political hype around the Ram Mandir, the BJP lost in Ayodhya. Gandhi pointed at the newly-elected Samajwadi Party MP of Faizabad, Awadhesh Prasad, to say that Prasad was the message from Ayodhya. “BJP lost in Ayodhya because of the fear that it spread among people.”
He said that Ayodhya residents who lost their land for the newly-built airport haven’t been paid their due compensation as yet; the houses of many have been demolished for building a flashy Ayodhya, even as none among Ayodhya residents were called to the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir in which Prime Minister’s friend Gautam Adani was invited.
“Lord Shri Ram has now given a message to the BJP in Ayodhya,” he said.
Such a fear, Gandhi said, has taken deep roots not only among the people of India, but also Modi’s own aides and ministers. He said senior Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari greet him frequently but their attitude towards him changes the moment when the Prime Minister is around them. “Even BJP ministers are scared,” Gandhi said.
Prime Minister Modi immediately got up at this moment. “Speaker sir, our democracy and constitution have taught me that I should treat the LoP with utmost seriousness,” he said. Whether he was making a statement defending himself or taking a dig at Gandhi was unclear.
As speaker Om Birla repeatedly alerted Gandhi to stick to the theme of the President’s Address, Gandhi said that he was prompted to speak about these issues because the BJP MP Anurag Thakur spoke about Ayodhya and Ram Mandir as achievements of the Modi government and talked about attacks on Sanatan Dharma in his speech this morning.
