‘Rahul Gandhi - The Man of the Moment’

‘Rahul Gandhi - The Man of the Moment’

On 1 July 2024, Rahul Gandhi, participating in the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, made an astounding maidan speech as the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) of Indian Parliament – the first day by a recognized LOP in a decade. 

      

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Some excerpts of his explosive speech, as reported in all the mainstream newspapers, are reproduced below to understand the man he is:

 

For the last 10 years, there has been a systematic assault on the Constitution, on the idea of India and on the millions and millions of people who resisted the ideas being proposed by the BJP. Many of us were personally attacked. Not only the opposition, but anybody who resisted the idea of concentration of power, of concentration of wealth, of aggression on the poor, of aggression on Dalits, minorities, tribals was crushed. Violently crushed. People were put in jail. I myself was attacked by order of Government of India, by order obviously by Prime Minister of India, 20 plus cases, two years jail sentence, relentless attack in the media 24x7, every single day, abused attacked. The most enjoyable and beautiful part of it is 55 hours interrogation by the ED. When there is such attack, you need refuge, you need ideas that defend you. So today I want to start my speech by telling my friends in the BJP and RSS about the ideas that we used to defend the idea of India. I would like to start by showing an image of our refuge (displays the photo of Shiv).  We got protection from it. There are some ideas in this image that we defended. The first idea is of confronting fear. For us, there is more than power, it is truth. For you, there is only power. Trishul is not a symbol of violence, it is a symbol of non-violence. When we defended the truth, there is not an ounce of violence. The ideas of truth, courage and non-violence come from Abayamudra.  It is not good enough not to be afraid of, to be non-violent. It is also important that you make others fearless and non-violent... There is another thing I realized. It is not one religion that talks about courage.  In fact, all our religions talk about courage.  Islam says not to fear. Guru Nanakji also says daro mat darao mat (don’t’ fear, don’t make others fear). He spoke of non-violence and truth. Jesus Christ also said daro mat, darao mat. He said if someone slapped you on the cheek, offer him the other.  All our great leaders have spoken about ahimsa and of shedding fear (He carried photographs of Lord Shiv and invoked Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha and Mahavir and said that he had taken the ideas of fearlessness and truthfulness from their teachings). Shivji says daro mat,darao mat, ahimsha. And those who call themselves Hindus, spread hatred, violence, untruth 24 hours. You are not Hindu (Modi interjects to say that calling entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter) .... Aap Ko, BJP Ko... No No, it is the BJP.  Hindu dharm says one should stand by truth, not run away from truth, not to be afraid of truth. Narendra Modi is not the entire Hindu community; the BJP is not the entire Hindu community; the RSS is not the entire Hindu community...  Ye teka nahi hai BJP ka. We all are Hindus. You do not follow the basic principles of Hinduism; spread fear, hatred and violence against minorities…. create an atmosphere of fear not in the opposition and in the country, even within the BJP. Hindu cannot spread hatred; Hindu cannot spread violence... The BJP spreads hatred everywhere... Ayodhya – Lord Ram’s birthplace – sent a message to BJP. The BJP inaugurated Ram Mandir.  For constructing airport in Ayodhya, people's land was taken away, but they are not compensated till date… small shops and buildings were destroyed, and the people were thrown on the streets. Ayodhya people were not invited for the inauguration of the temple, while Adani and Ambani attended the ceremony. You instilled fear in the minds of people of Ayodhya. The opposition responded by undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra to remove the fear. Agniveer is a use and throw worker. …Agniveer gets only six months training, whereas Chinese soldier gets five years training. You divided the soldiers- one category gets pension and martyr’s status, and the other does not get that. You claim you are patriot, what type of patriotism is it? Agniveer scheme is not the scheme of the Army. It was the brainchild of the Prime Minister. Just like the demonetisation, the Agniveer scheme was launched to benefit Adani and Ambai… For the first time in India, statehood is taken away from states. The statehood of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladak is taken away... You pushed Manipur into a civil war. Manipur is burning because of your policies and politics. And till date Prime Minister of India has not visited Manipur. It sounds as if Manipur is not a state of India. For the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, Manipur does not exist... Prime Minister says he has a direct link with God; that he is not biological... He must have got a message from God to impose demonetisation. The demonetisation has broken the backbone of the medium and small businesses. The result is the backbone of job creation is finished... The demonetisation and the GST cleared the way for Adani and Ambani... Income Tax department harasses the small and medium traders to benefit billionaires. Narendra Modi is working to benefit the billionaires. The Land Acquisition Bill meant to benefit farmers is cancelled. To intimidate farmers, the farm laws were brought to benefit Adani and Ambani. You don’t talk to them; you call them terrorists. Seven hundred farmers are martyred, you didn’t allow us to mourn them in this House, as according to you they were not farmers, they were terrorists. All that farmers wanted is that if you could write off Rs 16 lakh crore loans for the billionaires, given them also some relief. They asked for MSP. And you told them their loans won’t be written off and no MSP with legal guarantee. So, you created fear among farmers and in every section of society... Let us talk of students’ issues. Employment is destroyed; medium and small businesses are destroyed because of demonetisation and GS, employment in the Army for the youth is blocked by Agniveer, public sector is privatized.. all these resulted in the loss of jobs. Now comes the NEET. You have converted a professional examination into a commercial examination. In the NEET exam, a student can top the exam, could be an excellent student, but he cannot get into a medical college because he does not have money. The entire NEET examination is meant for the rich kids. This is what the NEET students say. You have centralised the entire examination system, thousands of cores of rupees are made. Commercialization of examinations...70 paper leaks in seven years. NEET students prepare for the examination for years, their families support them financially. The truth is that the students have lost faith in the examination. They believe the NEET is designed for the rich, not for meritorious students.  You have not allowed us to speak on NEET. The President’s address makes no mention of NEET and Agniveer. Creating fear everywhere among minorities – Muslims, Christians and Sikhs – by spreading hatred and violence. These minorities stand by India, they are patriots...

 

Speaker Sir, you are final arbiter of Lok Sabha. There are two persons in you. You are the Speaker of the House, and you are Mr. Om Birla.  Speaker is the lost word. I request you to be fair in the House... Finally, I would like to say that the principles that allowed us to fight are in our traditions -truth, courage, non-violence. These are there in all our religions. What you have come to represent today is untruth and violence. You are the government. You do not spread fear and hatred in the country.  And we are in the opposition, don’t take us as enemies. We are sincerely here to make your work easier as long as you follow the basic principles we stated. These are the principles of Shivji. All of us will be then happy to discuss anything you want, without being nasty and aggressive. Let us take this country forward. Let us work with bravery, without violence and hatred.

 

This was a fiery combative speech by the LOP Rahul Gandh that surprised everyone.

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Rahul Gandhi was interrupted by Narendra Modi twice, Amit Shah four times, and four other top Ministers – Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Bhupender Yadav and Shivraj Chavan- and other members of the treasury, citing rules and trying to prevent Rahul Gandhi from making his speech on one pretext or the other, and Amit Shah even seeking protection from the Speaker against Gandhi’s relentless attack on the government. They were rattled by his speech. He remained undeterred. The treasury benches did not expect that he would make such a fiery speech that lasted more than 100 minutes and take the ruling party to task. After the House is adjourned, the Home Minister and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister met the Speaker and pressurized him to expunge certain remarks of Rahul Gandhi from the record. Some 14 portions from his speech were expunged arbitrarily, in gross violation of the norms of Parliamentary democracy. It is an insult to the LOP, who represents the entire opposition in the House. Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to the Speaker protesting against this selective expunging. There is nothing unparliamentary or objectionable in what he said. The treasury benches simply wanted to delete the inconvenient facts form the Lok Sabha record. 

 

The letter reads: "While the Chair derives powers to expunge certain remarks from the proceedings of the House, but the expulsion is only those kinds of words, the nature of which has been specified in Rule 380 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. I am, however, shocked to note the manner in which considerable portions of my speech have been simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction. I am constrained to state that the portions expunged do not come under the ambit of Rule 380.  What I sought to convey in the House is ground reality, the factual position. Every member of the House who personifies the collective voice of people whom he or she represents has the freedom of speech as enshrined in Article 105(1) of the Constitution of India.  It is every member’s right to raise people’s concerns on the floor of the House. It is that right and in exercise of obligations to the people of the country, that I was exercising yesterday. Taking off from records my considerable remarks goes against the very tenets of parliamentary democracy. I request that the remarks expunged from the proceedings be restored."

 

Rahul Gandhi speaking to the Media the next day said: “In Modiji’s world, truth can be expunged. But in reality, the truth can’t be expunged. I said what I had to say, that is the truth. They can expunge as much as they want. Truth is truth.” And reacting to the attack on the congress office in Ahmedabad by the BJP workers, following his speech, he said: “The cowardly and violent attack on the Gujarat Congress office further reinforces my point about the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. BJP people who spread violence and hatred do not understand the basic principles of Hinduism.” The editorial in The Free Press Journal (3/7/24) reads: “The essence of his address was to highlight the ethos of India, Bharat, which is fundamentally rooted in peace and non-violence… He invoked the symbolism of the open palm, a gesture widely recognized among religious leaders and icons, to emphasize the nation’s core values. Gandhi portrayed the Indian people as inherently fearless, unwilling to bow before dictators.” He resonated with many who have felt marginalised over the past ten years, during a period marked by division, rather than unity, and recrimination, rather than reconciliation. As someone who has endured political adversity and suffered ridicule and campaign of calumny for so long, his indignation was palpable, reflecting the sentiments of the people he represents.

 

The next day, 2 July, Narendra Modi mounted scathing attack on the Congress and particularly on Rahul Gandhi in his speech lasting more than two hours amid non-stop sloganeering by the opposition. Instead of answering the issues raised by Rahul Gandhi, he spent most of his time attacking the Congress right from Pandit Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, by distorting truth and telling lies to the nation. Modi chose to personalise his attack on Rahul Gandhi calling him ‘childish’ and ‘juvenile’ and ‘infantile’ and the Congress a ‘parasite’, demonstrating his mental bankruptcy, disrespecting the self and the high office that he holds. If Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, based on ground reality, could be expunged, how Modi’s cheap and coarse words can go on record? How could Modi say anything, use derogatory language, ridicule and insult the LOP, and get away with impunity? Modi was no match to Gandhi’s intellectual prowess; he came as an arrogant, poorly read and uninformed and insincere leader.  

 

Valson Thampu, theologian and retired Principal, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, has beautifully analyzed Rahul Gandhi’s speech in his YouTube videos.  He calls him ‘the man of the moment for the destiny of India’ that history has thrown up. He decodes Rahul Gandhi’s ‘volcanic speech’ and describing it as ‘the most unforgettable matchless powerful historical speech’.  No one actually expected an atom bomb like this. The treasury benches were taken aback. Rahul demolished the Modi magic.  He says Rahul made ‘a memorable historical speech’. The contrast between Rahul and Modi: Rahul confined himself largely to themes, patterns and principles and the issues relating to the ideology of the Sangh Parivar and how Hinduism is abused and misused. It is ideas vs personal attacks. Ideas must be countered by ideas and ideology by ideology. To Modi, it has become his second nature to attack personally, leading to vilification of Rahul Gandhi. Sooner or later, the people of India are bound to see through it. It is utterly infantile. Modi is getting fixated and obsessed with Rahul Gandhi, which makes him unwilling to adapt to the changing reality. This is not a sign of maturity. It is a self-seeking pursuit to perpetuate power. 

 

Modi is carrying the coalition government in the same bulldozing style, as if nothing has happened. What is worrisome is that despite reduced numbers, and unequivocal message from the people, he is no mood to concede even an inch to the Opposition. And unless and until he changes his style of functioning, he will invite more trouble from a resurgent Opposition, finding it difficult to run the government. He has not understood Rahul Gandhi’s power of truth.