5 key points from Rahul Gandhi’s Fiery Speech: Does it rattle the cage for BJP?

The parliamentary session after the new government was formed has already been making headlines in the everyday news and that is commendable as a much better reflection of democracy and politics being part of the common man’s day-to-day life.

With the opposition that now has a significant voice of more than 230 MPs and the BJP-led alliance in the government having more than 290 seats, the parliament is believed to have more voices and consequent clashes be it for a maiden speech or for the vote of thanks. We will soon write a piece to summarize this session in lucid terms for our readers to get along but today, we talk about how Rahul Gandhi’s efforts to counter the newly formed government have paid off in such a short run. Here are 5 points we could think of:

1. Agniveer Scheme – Title and Compensation.

On July 1, 2024, in his first parliamentary speech, Rahul Gandhi laid the foundation of his speech by taking the “Constitution Saved” dig at the NDA and soon jumped on to a crucial agenda that counters the previous government’s Agniveer scheme – which (in brief) allows aspirants to serve as the nation’s armed forces for shortened time.

Rahul mentioned how if the personnel gives away his life in this short period of service, he will not be treated as a martyr by the govt. Also, “the family of the deceased will get nothing as compensation for the sacrifice” – said Rahul while he attacked the government for introducing such disrespectful policies.

This was countered by the Defence Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh by brushing off these claims and clarifying that the compensation is provided worth Rs. 1 Crore to the Agniveer Jawans who laid their lives for the nation. This was to be countered with facts by Rahul Gandhi, as he narrated an incident already, but he turned it around affirming that we can agree to disagree but the actual person in position knows it all. While speaking in the parliament, authentication of the facts is essential but it doesn’t seem RaGa believes it as much as we do.

2. No MSP given to farmers – Rahul Gandhi

As the farmers’ protest got global coverage in the previous government, there was a lot of ambiguity about the farm laws that were introduced and later repealed by the government. It should be noted that the opposition never worked to the core of finding out the actual cause of unrest amongst the farmers. Although many of these laws were aligned with UPA’s propositions back in time, while criticizing Modi 2.0 , Rahul Gandhi clearly mentioned there is NO MSP given to the farmers, which is not true – neither in reality nor in the proposed laws.

Again, with the absence of authentication, this claim was attacked and sent away by the present agriculture minister Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan reaffirming that MSP was previously present as much as it is today.

3. BJP calls farmers terrorists – Rahul Gandhi

This looks more like a political statement that leaders usually make in public rallies to encash the rage of the masses. Although BJP has its hands dirty up to some extent in this case, it is a bold move to call them out in the parliament with such claims made by Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the opposition.

This row did make the Home Minister stand to intervene but he could not retaliate in his best capacity here. Instead, he requested the lok sabha speaker to stop this and protect us(them) from the harm Raga is causing (Can you imagine HM Amit Shah requesting for protection without it being a joke?)

4. ED officer asked me about the secret of my strength –

Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi said the ED officers took it off-camera to know more about how RaGa could take this interrogation for more than 55 hours without being shattered mentally, and this is one of the most crucial topics that we need to discuss on ScoopDogDaily.

This anecdote, if true, would reflect a personal interaction and cannot be independently verified, as is required when putting it out in the parliament. It is important to approach such statements with caution, as they may be subjective or intended to create a particular narrative and if either of the parties has cracked this code, then it is more about information warfare rather than truth.

5. Those who call themselves Hindu, do violence all the time.

This statement took the parliament by storm, as Rahul Gandhi pointed towards the ruling benches and said the above. To much of its extent, we all do know that it was technically about targeting the BJP and RSS when he said Hindus, but we need to think deeper than the face value of this statement.

This was brought up by the Prime Minister himself as he labelled it to be an attack on the whole majority community (Hindus) and it started making rounds in the media like wildfire.

Rahul Gandhi knew what he was saying and stood by it. He wants to separate the idea of Hinduism from BJP’s Hindutva ideology – this is obvious. However, if so was the case, he could have called out the BJP/RSS clearly and created a divide; instead, he chose – “those who call” keeping it a grey area for reactions to stir the ambience.

Rahul is comfortable with offending the sharp focused vote bank of Hindus who pledge loyalty to BJP, as it opens the doors to all the other elements of the vote bank, including swing voters of the majority who keep development and good governance as a preference over falling prey to religion-based politics, which was at its peak in this election season.

We know this is merely the start of the next term of the government, but it is important to note that these remarks are a part of the first session. To answer how far Rahul succeeded in tearing apart the government on the first occasion of being face-to-face in the temple of democracy? – well he failed terribly. However, what he won was capturing the nation’s sentiments and channelling them against the govt and its ideology.

The government’s request to expunge his remarks, authenticate his claims or protect them etc. only makes the ruling party appear powerless and victimized here. Rahul’s Loksabha speech has become the talk of the nation and BJP’s counters to his claims are futile after a limit when Congress has set foot with the thought to hit-and-run without caring about the aftermath.