advertisement
The Lok Sabha saw a rejuvenated Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi taking potshots at the Narendra Modi government, signaling a shift within the Congress camp.
Gandhi, who was clean-shaven instead of sporting the fuzz, spoke with what seemed like unusual vigour, ripping into the Modi government especially over the Union Budget, the Rohith Vemula suicide and the JNU sedition row. He also went on the attack on the issue of black money.
Rahul Gandhi began his attack with the BJP’s election promise of bringing back black money that was stashed abroad. Rahul said, “Modi ji promised that all those with black money will be sent to jail. But instead they found a way to save these people”.
Rahul Gandhi then moved on to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet scheme, Make in India. He alleged that the government had boasted of creating jobs but failed to deliver on that promise too.
On the unrest in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the subsequent attacks on JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and the media by goons in lawyers’ cloaks, Rahul asked why the government had not said a word.
Gandhi defended Kanhaiya Kumar and said the jailed student leader hadn’t said a word against the country but still had been jailed by the government.
Speaking of silence, the suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula was another issue that Rahul Gandhi attacked the prime minister for.
Gandhi touched on the PM’s inability to engage with Rohith’s family, saying, “I am asked why I visited Vemula’s family, the PM has not spoken to the family even once.”
Rahul also lashed out at Modi for not listening to anyone, including his External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
He said the UPA government had scored a diplomatic victory over Pakistan and “destroyed their reputation” after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
He said Modi “did not bother to ask anyone” before making a sudden trip to Lahore.
“He didn’t ask Sushma ji even. He just went there as if only his opinion matters,” the Congress leader said.
Concluding his speech with thumping desks, he asked the prime minister to listen to his own Cabinet before making such big decisions.
With reports that the Congress had engaged social media wizard Prashant Kishor, Rahul’s punches seemed to have gained that extra-crucial timing. Ribbing the prime minister, Gandhi said, “Modi never makes mistakes, we make mistakes and learn from them.”
He also took note of the continuing polarisation in the country, the most recent of which being an alleged incendiary speech by Minister of State Katheria in Agra. Gandhi said, “It is Gandhi vs Savarkar, it is ahimsa vs violence.”
On the budget, Rahul said, “The budget is Modiji’s fair & lovely scheme, black money to become white.”
Underlining the similarities between Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s third Budget and the budgets placed in Parliament by P Chidambaram, his predecessor in the UPA, the Congress president said he thought, given the outlay to the MGNREGA in Budget 2016, that the budget was being presented by Chidambaram.
In the current budget, Jaitley allocated over Rs 38,500 crore to MGNREGA.
Not letting go of the opportunity, Gandhi poked fun at the PM’s style of functioning. “PM can’t run the country based on his own opinion. The country is not the PM, and the PM is not the country,” he said.
Rahul also referred to the time when the BJP government had signed a peace accord with NSCN(IM)‘s Isak Muivah. He said the Prime Minister had informed the Opposition that the Naga problem had been solved but the accord, Rahul claimed, is now nowhere.
(With inputs from Neelima)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: 02 Mar 2016,07:07 PM IST