INDIA bloc will break govt’s ‘chakravyuh’ & ensure MSP legal guarantee, caste census: LoP

New Delhi, July 29: Using the ‘chakravyuh’ metaphor as a leitmotif, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that an atmosphere of fear prevails all around with a group of six trapping the entire country in a ‘chakravyuh’ he promised would be broken by the INDIA bloc.
Participating in the debate in the Lok Sabha on Budget 2024-25, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc will ensure that a legal guarantee for MSP as well as a caste census is passed by the House.
In a speech that invoked the Mahabharat and led to an uproar in the House, prompting Speaker Om Birla to intervene frequently, Rahul alleged that the sole aim of the Budget is to strengthen the framework of big businesses, political monopoly that destroys the democratic structure, and the deep state or the agencies.
“There is an atmosphere of fear and that fear has pervaded every aspect of our country. In the BJP only one man is allowed to dream to be the prime minister. If the defence minister wants to be PM, there is a big problem, there is fear. This fear has been spread throughout the country…why is it that my friends in the BJP are terrified, ministers are terrified, farmers, workers are terrified?” he asked.
Thousands of years ago in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, six people killed a youth, Abhimanyu, in a ‘chakravyuh’, he said, adding that a ‘chakravyuh’ has violence and fear.
Gandhi’s reference was to the Mahabharat legend according to which Abhimanyu was killed in a ‘chakravyuh’. ‘Chakravyuh’ refers to a multi-layered military formation aimed at trapping a warrior by opponents placed strategically in an alignment resembling a lotus-shaped labyrinth.
He said the ‘chakravyuh’ is also called a ‘padmavyuh’ for its resemblance to a lotus (BJP’s election symbol) formation. “In the 21st century, another ‘chakravyuh’ has been prepared. It is in the form of lotus and the PM (Narendra Modi) wears the symbol on his chest. What was done with Abhinmanyu is being done with India, with its youth, women, farmers and small and medium businesses,” he said.
Today also, there are six people at the centre of the ‘chakravyuh’, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Gandhi took the name of four more people but Speaker Om Birla disallowed it citing that they were not members of the House and hence cannot be named.
As the treasury benches erupted in protest, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said Gandhi was not following parliamentary procedure. The Congress leader was not showing him the courtesy of allowing him to intervene, Rijiju said.
Gandhi responded by saying that opposition would always “reciprocate the courtesy” if the PM and ministers do the same. “The ‘chakravyuh’ that has captured India has three forces behind it: first is the idea of monopoly capital– that two people should be allowed to own the entire Indian wealth… The second element is the institutions, agencies, CBI, ED, Income Tax department of this nation; and the third is the political executive,” Gandhi said.
These three together are at the heart of the ‘chakravyuh’, and they have devastated this country, he said. “My expectation was that this budget would weaken the power of this ‘chakravyuh’. It would help the farmers of the country, the youth, labourers, and small businesses of the country. But what I have seen is that the sole aim of this budget is to strengthen this framework of monopoly business, the framework of political monopoly that destroys the democratic structure, and the framework of the deep state or the agencies,” he said.
The first thing this ‘chakravyuh’ did was to attack the small and medium businesses that used to give jobs to crores, he said, adding that this was done through demonetisation and tax terrorism.
According to Gandhi, the paper leak is the biggest issue for the youth today but was not discussed in the budget.
“You created a ‘chakravyuh’ of unemployment and paper leak… You call yourself nationalists but when you have to help jawans, you do not give money for pensions. You trapped the youth in the ‘chakravyuh’ of Agniveer,” he said. (PTI)