Rahul Gandhi’s first speech after assuming office as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha while participating in the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address is currently being heavily debated. While this speech was going on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had to stand up and object to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. What was there in Rahul’s speech that hurt the BJP so much and the impact of which was reflected in the Parliament on the second day in a row? In fact, BJP had no idea that Rahul Gandhi would criticize BJP’s Hindutva so aggressively. At the very least, it was expected that he would stop at the mention of a NEET exam issue and a couple of other points. But Rahul showed the photo of Lord Shiva in the beginning and said that Shiva is a preacher of non-violence, he has buried his trident in the ground and he is asking to be fearless and restrained by showing ‘Abhay Mudra’ in the way of non-violence. And while showing this ‘Abhay Mudra’, Gandhi raised his hand two to four times.
The BJP and the Lok Sabha Speaker did not expect Rahul Gandhi to say something like this - by raising his hand in Abhay Mudra. The second meaning seemed to be that the Congress has given refuge to the people of the country, since the hand is the Congress symbol. After speaking about Lord Shiva, Rahul said that on the other side, “those who call themselves Hindus do violence-violence-violence and hate-hate-hate… 24 hours a day...You are not Hindus. It is clearly stated in Hinduism that truth should be upheld.” This sentence of Rahul disturbed the BJP. The ruling party MPs started shouting in the House. After this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood up and said that this calling the entire Hindu community violent is a serious matter. Never in the history of the Parliament has the Prime Minister himself stood up and commented on the speech of the Leader of the Opposition. But on July 1, the nation witnessed it. Immediately after Modi’s remarks, Rahul said, “Narendra Modi is not the whole Hindu society. BJP is not the whole Hindu society. RSS is not the whole Hindu society.” After Rahul's statement, there was more ruckus in the House. Home Minister Amit Shah himself stood up and demanded that Rahul should withdraw his statement and apologise.
The picture in the Lok Sabha was such that on one side Rahul was attacking the ruling faction, and despite having so many MPs to hit back, PM Modi and HM Shah themselves had to come forward and defend. This changed form of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was not seen in the last ten years. And even Rahul was not as confident as he is now. It is obvious that all this will increase the strength of the INDIA Bloc. And this will benefit the opposition parties in the upcoming State assembly elections. Maharashtra and Haryana are the major States where assembly elections will be held in the next three months. Therefore, in his speech, Rahul attacked the Modi government’s Agniveer scheme. He pointed out that an Agniveer was martyred due to a land mine. “I am calling him a shaheed (martyr), but the Government of India and PM Modi are not calling him a martyr. They say Agniveer will not get pension. His family will not get compensation. He will not get the status of a martyr. Agniveer are laborers recruited into the army on a use-and-throw basis. You give them six months of training and make them stand in front of a Chinese soldier who has been trained for over five years,” he stated. While Rahul Gandhi was talking about Agniveer Yojana in his speech, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stood and clarified about it. He said, there should not be an attempt to mislead the House by making false statements. “I want to make it clear that if an Agniveer dies in war or while defending the border, his family is given financial assistance of Rs 1 crore,” he said.
In short, Rahul was lashing out at the new NDA government in his first speech like a a batsman in a T-20 match does, where the batsman gets really excited and he fires off fours and sixes. BJP never imagined that this ‘Pappu’ will one day become the Leader of Opposition and leave them in a tizzy. The results of the 18th Lok Sabha have made it into a reality. It is now evident that the Opposition is going to confront the ruling party more aggressively with many issues in the main monsoon session of the Parliament, which will commence from July 22. Rahul will obviously be solidly backed by Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra. Therefore, BJP will definitely face a challenge from a stronger Opposition in the coming Budget session.