New Delhi: India’s middle class had been stabbed in the “back and chest”, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi told the Lok Sabha Monday, adding the Narendra Modi government risked losing its support given the 2024 Budget decisions, which included removing indexation benefits of property and increasing capital gain taxes.
Gandhi alleged the budget, presented last week, had a three-pronged objective – to strengthen the hold of big business over the Indian economy, championing political monopoly over democratic structure, and to buttress the “framework of the deep state”.
He described this as a chakravyuh (trap) — drawing reference from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
Gandhi said: “The middle class perhaps supported the prime minister before this budget. They aggressively beat utensils during Covid as ordered by him. We found it strange, but they also obliged him by flashing their cell phone lights. And you stabbed the same middle class in the back and the chest.”
“The cancellation of indexation benefits was a stab from behind while the increase in the long term and short term capital gains tax was a stab from the front. But it comes with a hidden benefit for the INDIA bloc. The middle class is now going to abandon you and come to this (opposition) side,” he added.
The Congress MP’s remarks, particularly his references to major business conglomerates, drew objections from Speaker Om Birla, who repeatedly advised Gandhi to “study” the rules that govern the proceedings of the House.
“Shall I then call them by the names A1 and A2, sir? These two individuals control the infrastructure and business of India. From airports, ports, railways, they have a monopoly over India’s wealth. It is not acceptable to us that we cannot even discuss them,” Gandhi responded to Birla’s intervention.
At that point, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju came to Birla’s aid, accusing the LoP of having “lowered the decorum of the House by challenging the Lok Sabha Speaker”.
Gandhi promptly shot back: “I know that the minister has to protect A1 and A2. There must be order from his higher-ups. He is permitted to defend them, it is a democracy. But it helps us only.”
The LoP’s entire speech was punctuated with such sharp exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches.
His act of holding up a picture of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and a group of ministry officials at the pre-budget halwa ceremony, to underline a point on lack of representation of the backward castes in the bureaucracy, also invited a sharp rebuke from Birla, who said he would not allow posters in the House.
Later, Gandhi reiterated the points he made in the House. “Today a 21st century lotus-shaped Chakravyuh is trapping India and is controlled by six figures: Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Adani, Ambani, Ajit Doval, and Mohan Bhagwat,” he posted on ‘X’.
In Kurukshetra, Abhimanyu was trapped and killed in a Chakravyuh – a formation controlled by six people, and also known as Padmavyuh for its resemblance to a lotus formation.
Today a 21st century lotus-shaped Chakravyuh is trapping India and is controlled by six figures:… pic.twitter.com/GMmF4P4w0r
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 29, 2024
Pet themes
From targeting the government for allegedly favouring two business houses, the Agnipath scheme, to the need for a nation-wide caste census, and a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), Gandhi’s speech was largely a repetition of his pet themes. There was little in terms of specifics in his critique of the budget.
Along the lines of his first speech as the LoP in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi borrowed references from Hindu epics and scriptures in articulating his position that there has been a centralisation of power since 2014. He said it was akin to Abhimanyu being trapped in a chakravyuh, also known as padmavyuh, in the Mahabharata.
“A sense of fear has pervaded our country. My friends (in the treasury benches) are smiling but they are also scared. In the BJP, only one man is allowed to dream of becoming PM. If the defence minister harbours that dream, there will be a big problem. The ministers are terrified, farmers, workers, youngsters are terrified. Why is it happening?
“Let me propose one answer — thousands of years ago in Haryana in Kurukshetra, Abhimanyu was killed in a chakravyuh. Six people trapped him there. It is also known as padmavyuh because it has the shape of a lotus. There is a new chakravyuh in the 21st century and the PM goes around wearing that symbol in his pocket,” Gandhi said.
In contrast, he said, the Opposition was akin to Shivji ki baraat which he defined as “inclusive”. “There are formations against chakravyuh in every religion. In Hinduism, it is Shivji ki baraat. In Sikhism, no one can be thrown out from a langar. Anyone can enter a mosque or a church. So, the fight is between Shivji ki baraat and the chakravyuh. You call yourselves Hindus, but you don’t understand Hinduism.”
Gandhi warned the ruling class not to be under the impression that today’s youth and backward classes were Abhimanyu. Instead, “they are Arjuna”, who will destroy them “like we have destroyed the confidence of your Prime Minister who will run away whenever I speak”.
The Congress leader criticised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for not mentioning the many paper leaks, or pension for soldiers under the Agnipath scheme in her budget.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh countered Gandhi, accusing him of “misleading” the House, and said he was ready to give a statement on the issue. Gandhi, however, stuck to his guns, arguing the families of slain soldiers recruited under the scheme had been paid insurance money, not compensation.
His remarks about a delegation of farmers not allowed to meet him till he intervened, also prompted the Speaker to cut in.
Birla pointed out that farmer leaders spoke to the media inside the House in the presence of Gandhi, which was going against convention. “It is a technicality, I was not aware,” he responded, adding the nub of the issue was a legal guarantee for MSP that the “INDIA bloc will get passed in this House”.
Birla underscored that allowing or disallowing people from the House fell under the discretion of his post, an argument he also used when Gandhi raised the matter of journalists being barred from accessing the Makar Dwar of Parliament — the entry and exit point of MPs from the House.
“Media people had requested me (to raise the issue),” Gandhi said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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Buffoonery elevated to art form by Pappu.