NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi during his address on Saturday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party saying that the saffron party’s “supreme leader” Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was critical of the Indian Constitution. Rahul said that Savarkar had said that there was “nothing Indian about our Constitution.”
The LoP cornered the BJP and said that when it talks about protecting the protecting the Constitution of the country it is “ridiculing Savarkar.”
“The worst thing about the Constitution of India is that there is nothing Indian about it. Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worshippable after Vedas for our Hindu nation and from which our ancient times have become the basis for our culture, customs, thought and practice. This book, for centuries, has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Today, Manusmiriti is law. These are the words of Savarkar,” the Congress leader said.
“I want to ask you (ruling side), do you stand by your leader’s words? Do you support your leader’s words? Because when you speak in Parliament about protecting the Constitution, you are ridiculing Savarkar, you are abusing Savarkar, you are defaming Savarkar,” he added.
Rahul cited the story of Eklavya and said that just like Dronacharya took Eklavya’s thumb, the saffron party has taken the thumbs of farmers, the backward classes and the youth of the country.
“When you handover Dharavi to Adani, you cut off the thumb of entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses. When you handover India’s ports, airports and defence industry to Adani, you cut off the thumbs of all fair play business of India who work honestly,” he said.
Here are the key quotes from Rahul Gandhi’s speech:
- “When we look at this Constitution, we remember this list of people, old different variations of the same idea… and in front us, stand the people who follow very different philosophical tradition. And I want to start my speech by quoting what the supreme leader, not of the BJP, but of the modern interpretation of the ideas of the RSS has to say about the Constitution of India and how he thinks India should be run… ‘The worst thing about the Constitution of India is that there is nothing Indian about it. Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worshipable after Vedas for our Hindu nation, and from which our ancient times, has become the basis of our culture, customs, thought and practice. This book for centuries has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Today, manusmriti is law’. These are the words of Savarkar. He has clearly stated in his writing that there is nothing Indian about our Constitution.”
- “I want to ask you (ruling side), do you stand by your leader’s words? Do you support your leader’s words? Because when you speak in Parliament about protecting the Constitution, you are ridiculing Savarkar, you are abusing Savarkar, you are defaming Savarkar.”
- “Constitution a document of modern India but it could never have been written without ancient India, her ideas”
- “When we open Constitution, we can hear voice, ideas of Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru”
- “When you (BJP) speak of protecting Constitution, you are ridiculing Savarkar”
- “This is Abhayamudra. Confidence, strength and fearlessness come through skill, through thumb. These people are against this. The manner in which Dronacharya cut off the thumb of Eklavya, you are busy cutting off the thumb of the entire nation…When you handover Dharavi to Adani, you cut off the thumb of entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses. When you handover India’s ports, airports and defence industry to Adani, you cut off the thumbs of all fair play business of India who work honestly.”
- “When you implemented Agniveer, you cut off the thumb of the youth. When you have paper leaks – you had 70 paper leaks, you cut off the thumb of the youth of India…Today, you lobbed tear gas shells on farmers outside Delhi, you unleased lathi charge on the farmers. Farmers demand MSP from you. They demand a suitable price. But you facilitate profits to Adani, Ambani and cut off the thumb of farmers. We sav Abhayamudra, we say “daro matt”. You say, “Hum aapka angootha kaat denge.” This is the difference.”