Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched a frontal attack on the ruling BJP for having “stabbed the middle class twice” by changing the capital gains tax regime. Using the epical metaphor of chakravyuh from Mahabharata, Gandhi said six people in the ruling dispensation have trapped the people and an atmosphere of fear is prevailing.
“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,” Gandhi said while participating in the debate on General Budget. “Why is it that my friends in the BJP are terrified, ministers are terrified, farmers, workers are terrified?” he asked.
Invoking Mahabharta, 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 prime minister (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. Later in a social media post, Gandhi added the name Adani, Ambani, Ajit Doval, and Mohan Bhagwat.
Gandhi said that this modern chakravyuh has trapped youth in a chakravyuh of unemployment and paper Leak, farmers in debt, middle class in Tax, MSMEs in Tax Terrorism, Jawans in Agnipath and SC, ST, OBC and minorities in a chakravyuh of anyay Take .Further he highlighted that the INDIA bloc has taken the first steps to break this Chakravyuh and will continue to fight until this atmosphere of fear is replaced with ‘Shiv ji ki Baraat’, where there is equal opportunity, justice, and freedom for all. “The BJP should not mistake India‘s youth for Abhimanyu. They are Arjun and will break free from this Chakravyuh,” he said in the post.
Stabbing middle class
Meanwhile, in his speech in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi continue criticising the the Budget. “The Finance Minister talked about the internship programme in the budget. This is a joke, because you said that the internship programme will be in the top 500 companies of the country. 99 per cent of the youth have nothing to do with this programme,” he said.
Gandhi said the middle class of the country probably supported the prime minister before this budget. “When during the Covid pandemic the prime minister asked the middle class to bang plates and switch on mobile lights and they did. But in this budget, you have stabbed the same middle class in the back with one knife and in the chest with another. The cancellation of indexation and increase in capital gains tax were examples of that,” he said.
He also assured that farmers that INDIA alliance will do what they (NDA) have not done. “We will pass (the Bill for) guaranteed legal MSP in this House,” he said.