Rahul Gandhi in his first speech as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha called out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party, PM Modi, RSS, and how Hindus are engaging in “violence and hate”.
This resulted in a massive backlash from not just members of the treasury benches but also had Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking up in response along with Home Minister Amit Shah. Gandhi’s fiery speech at the Lok Sabha session on July 1st, Monday has become the talk of the town with it invoking severe reactions of both kinds.
Gandhi started his speech during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address. Rahul Gandhi brought out placards of various religions and attacked the ruling party BJP and how Hinduism should not be about spreading fear, hatred, and falsehoods.
Gandhi was seen carrying placards of Lord Shiva, Guru Nanakl, Jesus Christ, and one featuring a quote from the Quran. While the Lok Sabha Speaker said, “Rules don’t allow the display of placards” Gandhi continued to hold them.
Rahul Gandhi’s Fierce Speech
Rahul Gandhi stated that “Hinduism is not about spreading fear, hatred and falsehoods. Those who call themselves Hindus are engaged in “violence and hate round the clock.”
“Abhayamudra is the symbol of Congress. It represents fearlessness, reassurance, and safety, dispelling fear and providing divine protection and bliss in Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and other Indian religions. All our great leaders have advocated for non-violence and ending fear. However, those who claim to be Hindu only speak of violence, hatred, and untruth. Aap Hindu ho hi nahi (You are not truly Hindu),” he further said.
Holding up a placard with a photo of Lord Shiva, Gandhi said, “Darao mat (don’t scare people)” and “If you look at Lord Shiva’s image you would know that Hindus can never spread fear, hatred but BJP spreads fear, hatred 24X7.”
He further said that all other religions like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism encourage courage.
He also accused the BJP of attacking the Constitution and fundamental ideas of India saying, “There has been a systematic and a full-scale assault on the idea of India, the Constitution and on the people who resisted the attack on the Constitution. Many of us were personally attacked. Some of the leaders are still in jail.”
Rahul Gandhi spoke about how “I was attacked on the orders of Prime Minister Modi,” and “Not only the Opposition but anyone who resisted the concentration of power and wealth, be it minorities, Dalits, were crushed, jailed, threatened. I myself faced relentless attacks. There were 20-plus cases (against me), (my) house was taken away. I faced 55 hours of interrogation (by ED).”
In light of this, Gandhi stated, “The country has together protected the Constitution. It feels nice that BJP people are now repeating ‘Jai Samvidhan’ after me.”
Gandhi also mocked PM Modi’s remark about being ‘sent by God’, saying, “The Prime Minister has a direct connection with God. The ‘parmaatma’ (the divine God) speaks to Modi Ji’s aatma (soul) directly. We are all biological, we are born, we die, but the Prime Minister is a non-biological being, and the Prime Minister says Gandhi is dead and Gandhi was revived by a movie. Can you understand the ignorance?”
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Gandhi, even called out Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and alleged him of being biased saying “Speaker sir, please forgive me for saying this…You are the final arbiter of what happens in the Lok Sabha…But I noticed something. When I shook your hand, you stood straight and shook your hand like this. When Modi ji shook your hand, you bowed down and shook your hand.”
“I respect you but I want to tell you that no one is bigger than the Speaker in the House…this is democracy and you are the leader of the House. You should not bow down in front of anyone…you are the last word in the Lok Sabha…I and the entire opposition are subservient to you.”
Om Birla explained himself saying, “The Prime Minister is the Leader of House. My culture and traditions say, in personal as well as public life, and on this seat, I should bow to those who are elders and those who are equal should be treated equally, that is what I have learnt.”
PM Modi’s Response
PM Modi immediately interjected when Rahul Gandhi was speaking about Hinduism and said, “Calling the entire Hindu society violent is a serious issue,” and “It is an issue of concern that the entire Hindu community has been called violent.”
To this, Gandhi responded, “You are not true Hindus. The BJP doesn’t represent Hindus. Narendra Modi is not the entire Hindu Samaj, RSS is not the entire Hindu Samaj. You are not the custodians of Hinduism.”
Amit Shah also intervened during this calling for the Congress leader to apologise for hurting the feelings of the many Hindus across the country and also brought up the Emergency and the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots claiming that Gandhi couldn’t talk about non-violence when Congress had spread “terror” in the country.
Amit Shah said, “In this country, millions of people call themselves Hindu. Do they commit violence? Associating the sentiment of violence with any religion is wrong, and he should apologise for this.” Adding that “They have no right to speak. During the Emergency, they terrorised the entire country with ideological terrorism.”
To this the Opposition countered by bringing up the Manipur and Godhra (Gujarat) violence.
Reaction To The Face-Off
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a post on X/Twitter reacting to Gandhi’s speech said “Sheer audacity of LoP @RahulGandhi to call everyone who calls himself Hindu as “hinsak”/violent shows @INCIndia’s hatred and contempt towards Hindus. Also consistent with Hindu hate of his INDI Alliance partners. Hypocrisy in claiming “Mohabbat ki Dukaan” exposed.”
Reacting to Gandhi’s speech, BJP MP Kangana Ranaut also said, “I have said, Rahul Gandhi did a good standup comedian act because he made all our gods and goddesses, brand ambassador of Congress. He said that the hand raised by Lord Shiva in blessing is the hands of Congress…”
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The Hindu, The Indian Express, TOI
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