It looks like the ongoing Parliament session is going to be more heated than ever. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s first speech in the Lok Sabha as the Leader of Opposition on July 1, during which he launched a scathing attack against the BJP and the RSS, has triggered a major political uproar in the country. While sections of Rahul Gandhi’s address have now been expunged, the scorching speech prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rise twice and rebut the Congress leader’s claims. Prime Minister Modi, replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address on July 2, took strong objection to the portrayal of Hindus as a “violent community” by Rahul Gandhi and said that such adventurism will go down in history as a blot on part of the grand old party. However, Rahul Gandhi insisted that he was speaking about the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Singh (RSS), and not the entire Hindu society.
Rahul Gandhi, in his fiery speech, pulled all punches in attacking the government and even went a step ahead to train guns on Speaker Om Birla, eliciting condemnation and angry protests from the Treasury benches. Rahul Gandhi told Speaker Om Birla that he stood straight when shaking hands with him but bowed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the day of his election to the post. Indeed, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, stole the show with his fiery speech and no-holds-barred attack on the BJP-led NDA. While Rahul Gandhi’s speech was marked by the same aggression that characterised many of his addresses during the recent Lok Sabha elections, he should remember that this time he was speaking in the Parliament as the Leader of Opposition, and not to a motley crowd of people composed mostly of Congress supporters.
Most leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc led by the Congress are backing Rahul Gandhi’s comments. Given the INDIA bloc’s resurgence in the recent Lok Sabha polls and its seeming success in convincing people about a jolt to the NDA, the odds were stacked in its favour. But, the relentless sloganeering by the Congress-led Opposition didn’t see Prime Minister Modi buckle under pressure, rather he used the occasion to mount a fierce counterattack, citing film dialogues and a couple of stories about ‘99 marks scoring student’. Modi’s references to ‘Sholay’ and stories about a child bragging about 99 marks got the Treasury benches cheering and the Opposition benches getting more hostile. Though the Prime Minister didn’t name Rahul Gandhi, the focal point of his criticism was centred on the Congress MP as the grand old party has been crediting him for the party doubling its tally in the 2024 elections.
