NEW DELHI: Citing Mahabharata, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the ruling BJP-led NDA of creating a “chakravyuh” (vortex) to trap the youth, MSME sector, farmers and the middle class.
“But they are not like Abhimanyu, they are like Arjuna and will break the chakravyuh,” he said while speaking in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the Union 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 alleged.
After his speech, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh later rose to say the Leader of Opposition was trying to mislead the nation about the sensitive issue of national security and the Agnipath scheme. In his response, Rahul said the Defence Minister had told the House that the family of an Agniveer martyr was paid a compensation of Rs 1 crore, but it was only an insurance payment and not compensation.
Rahul earlier said the INDIA bloc would bring Bills on a legal guarantee for the MSP and a caste census and ensure the same were passed by the House. He made “chakravyuh” as the focal point of his attack on the NDA, which led to an uproar in the House, and alleged there was an atmosphere of fear prevailing in the country.
He cited the Mahabharata and the killing of Abhimanyu after getting trapped in the “chakravuyuh”, which, he said was actually shaped like a lotus flower (BJP’s symbol). “The entire country is now trapped in this ‘cakravyuh’ mainly the youth, MSME sector, our mothers and sisters,” he said.
Rahul alleged while the “chakravyuh” in Mahabharata was created by six persons, the modern day “chakravyuh” too had six creators, including PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Rahul took the names of four more persons, but Speaker Om Birla disallowed it, citing they were not members of the House and hence could not be named.
Rahul then said, “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, the CBI, ED, Income Tax department of this nation; and the third is the political executive.”
These three together were at the heart of the ‘chakravyuh’, and they had devastated this country, he added.