Atmosphere of fear prevails in country, Opposition will break BJP's 'chakravyuh': Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, July 29

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi speaking on the Budget in Lok Sabha on Monday cited the battle of Mahabharata to accuse the ruling BJP-led NDA of creating a ‘Chakravyuh’ (vortex) to trap the youth, MSME sector, farmers and middle class.

“…but they are not like Abhimanyu, they are Arjuna and will break the Chakravyuh”, Gandhi added.

He went onto promise the ‘INDIA alliance’ parties would get a bill for legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) passed in this House. Also, a bill for having caste census would be passed in this house, the INDIA alliance would get it done,” Gandhi said.

Probably, he was hinting that the two crucial NDA allies, the Janata Dal United led by Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, would be also okay with having a caste census and providing a legal guarantee on MSP and that could pressure the NDA.

The Leader of Opposition made the ‘Chakravyuh’ as the centre point of his political attack saying there is an atmosphere of fear prevailing in the country.

He cited the Mahabharata and the killing of Abhimanyu when he was trapped in ‘Chakravuyuh’ saying it is actually shaped like a lotus flower – (the party symbol of the BJP).

“Entire India is now trapped in this ‘Chakravyuh’ that includes the Youth, MSME sector, our mothers and sisters”, he added.

Gandhi said the ‘Chakravyuh’ in Mahabharata was created by six people, the modern day ‘Chakravyuh’ also has six people including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat, the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and business tycoon Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.

Speaker Om Birla objected to naming people who are not present in the House to which Gandhi retorted okay will not name those not in the House and term the other two as ‘A-1’ and ‘A-2’.

“The fight is between the creators of the Chakravyuh and those who believe in the ‘Shiv ki Baraat’”, said Rahul, adding that everyone from multi-faith and diverse background were part of the ‘Baraat’.

Gandhi said the ‘Chakravyuh’ has three forces behind it — first is idea of monopoly capital that two people should own wealth of entire India; second institutions and agencies like CBI, the ED and the Income Tax department; third is the political executive.

“These three together are at the heart of the Chakravyuh,” he added.

“My expectation was that this budget would help farmers, youth and labourers of this country, but the sole aim was to strengthen big business, create a political monopoly that destroys the democratic structures,” Gandhi added.

The ‘Chakravyuh’ first attacked the MSME sector through demonetisation, followed by GST and then tax-terrorism. “You have done nothing in the budget to remove tax terrorism,” Gandhi said.

The leak of examination papers is yet another ‘Chakravyuh’ and the soldiers in the Angipath scheme are also trapped in ‘Chakravyuh’, he said, adding “You have not given a rupee in pensions for Agniveer in the budget”.

“The middle class was supporting the PM is leaving you and coming towards INDIA alliance,” he added.