Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has good speech days and bad speech days. On his bad speech days, reuses phrases like ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ and drags the RSS in, no matter what he’s talking about.
But on good speech days, he goes after the opposition, lands some good blows and even manages to crack a smile. Today was one such day. Gandhi came out all guns blazing in the Lok Sabha to speak about rising intolerance in the country and landed a few meaty blows despite constantly being interrupted by BJP MPs. But he did stumble once.
So what did he say that made his speech stand out?
An attack on General VK Singh
” I am looking around here and I cant see Mr VK Singh. A General who likened Dalit children to dogs. He has directly challenged the constitution and the fundamental right to equality by equating Dalit children to dogs,” Gandhi said in a not-so-veiled attack on the Minister of State.
And he used it to target the Prime Minister.
“Our Prime Minister allows this man to continue as if nothing had happened,” he said.
On the FTII protest
“The government talks of Skill India. Yet when FTII students with superb skills go on strike because a mediocre man is placed in a top institution, the government simply tries to intimidate them,” Gandhi said.
The Gujarat model going pop
The Congress Vice President claimed that the balloon of the Gujarat model had gone pop. And proof of it, according to him, was the Patidar agitation seeking reservations.
“In Gujarat, Patidars are protesting and the govt’s response is to file 20,000 FIRs against them for sedition,” he said.
” Today in India, protest means sedition!” Gandhi said.
The Congress has been accused of backing the Patidar agitation and Gandhi’s statement may be seen as a sign of the party’s backing for it.
Going after Arun Jaitley
He mocked Arun Jaitley for claiming that the protest by writers and actors against intolerance in the country was manufactured.
“Arun Jaitleyji – this is not a dream like your “Make in India” program. This is reality!” he said.
He said that people like Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had better things to do than manufacture protests against the government.
The Pakistan factor
Gandhi pointed out how the Prime Minister spoke of Bollywood being the country’s biggest asset but his supporters wanted to send actors to Pakistan for speaking out against the government.
” India is successful because we have given our people space to talk.Pakistan has failed because they did not allow the voice of their people to be heard. Pakistan has failed because their leaders crushed the voices that were inconvenient to them,” he said.
” Our greatest strength is our tolerance. Their biggest weakness is their intolerance,” he said. He also requested the government not to learn a wrong lesson from its neighbour.
However, there was a stumble by the Congress Vice President as well. At one point when he was interrupted, Gandhi said,”Their (Pakistan’s) biggest weakness is their tolerance.”
Ah well, just one error.
