Speaking in Lok Sabha, Rahul said under Modi’s regime, the entire country — farmers, youth, soldiers, backward classes and MSMEs — are trapped in a vicious “chakravyuh”.“But BJP should not mistake Indians for Abhimanyu. They are Arjun and will break free,” he said. Rahul said he had expected that the finance minister would heed farmers’ demand for legal guarantee on MSP, and the caste census clamour.
Budget has done nothing on paper leaks & unemployment, says Rahul
Rahul said INDIA bloc would fulfil these demands. It was an iteration of Congress‘ Lok Sabha election pledge with an eye on coming state polls in which farmers and backward classes constitute key vote banks. Rahul claimed the Budget has done nothing on unemployment and paper leaks, and has pushed education allocation to its lowest in 20 years, while providing no money for pension for Agniveers.
The speech was accompanied by interventions by top ministers. Defence minister Rajnath Singh charged Rahul with misleading LS on the sensitive issue of Agniveers, and said he was ready to give a statement whenever asked. Interestingly, at one point, Rahul flashed the photograph of finance ministry’s Budget ritual of “halwa ceremony” to point out that not one of the officers in the photo belonged to the 73% population – SC/ST/OBC – at which Sitharaman was seen laughing. Rahul took exception, saying “caste census was not a laughing matter, and the exercise would change the country”.
Rahul’s address was replete with religious symbolism and analogies. After employing “hum do, hamare do”, “suit boot ki sarkar”, “daro mat”, “abhay mudra” as buzzwords over the years, Rahul on Monday used the theme of “chakravyuh” in which “Abhimanyu was killed by six persons”, adding that Kurukshetra’s mythological episode was being re-enacted in the 21st century by the “trap” controlled by PM, home minister, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani and NSA Ajit Doval.
After painting a grim picture of the “trap” run by top “establishment” principals and underpinned by “financial power, deep state and political executive”, Rahul sought to hang it around BJP by stating that a synonym of “chakravyuh” is “padmavyuh” (lotus formation) – BJP’s symbol that he said Modi has pinned to his chest.
Amid guffaws and furore alike, he went about describing what he called was govt’s “trap” on different sections – unemployment and paper leak on youth, debt on farmers, tax on middle class, tax terrorism on MSMEs, Agnipath on soldiers and lack of representation on backward classes. He said the counter to “chakravyuh” (restriction) is “shiv ki barat” (which welcomes all). “It is a fight between ‘chakravyuh’ and ‘shiv ki barat’. The former cannot beat the latter. You (BJP) call yourself Hindus, but you don’t understand it. We will break the ‘chakravyuh’,” Rahul said, adding it would be done through MGNREGA, freedom, Constitution, caste census, MSP law and other policies.
“My expectation was that this Budget would weaken the power of this Chakravyuh, but the aim of this Budget is to strengthen the framework of big business, monopoly business, of a political monopoly that destroys the democratic structure and of the deep state, or the agencies,” he said.