BJP leader Anurag Thakur's apparent reference to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's caste during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday triggered an ugly spat between the opposition and treasury benches. Gandhi accused Thakur of insulting and abusing him during the debate but asserted that he would not seek any apology from the former Union minister.
Questioning the Congress' stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered the uproar and had Congress members trooping into the Well of the Lok Sabha. "Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Launching a scathing attack on Gandhi for his "chakravyuh" jibe at the BJP-led government a day earlier, Thakur cited purported portions from a book authored by Shashi Tharoor to hit out at successive Congress governments since 1947 and alleged the former Congress chief misinterpreted his position of LoP as "leader of propaganda".
Thakur also took a jibe at Gandhi, who stood up twice to counter his remarks targeting the previous Congress governments. The BJP MP from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur claimed that Gandhi had already made his remarks but sought permission to speak again after someone passed a chit to him.
"Udhaar ki buddhi se rajniti nahi chalti (You can't indulge in politics on borrowed wisdom)," Thakur said. The former Union minister said one of the synonyms for lotus is Rajiv, the name of Rahul Gandhi's father and former prime minister.
"You linked lotus with violence. Does that mean you also link Rajiv with violence," the BJP member asked. Accusing Gandhi of criticising the lotus, the BJP's election symbol, he said, "Goddess Lakshmi is seated on a lotus, our national flower too is lotus, Lord Shiva statue was also found seated in the lotus formation (padmasan) and Lokmanya Tilak also breathed his last sitting in padmasan posture. So next time you criticise the lotus, just remember who all you are targeting."
Thakur called Gandhi an "accidental" Hindu and advised him not to be a "reel" leader. "There are many memes about you. To become a real leader, you have to speak the truth," he added.
The BJP member said Gandhi's knowledge about Mahabharata too could be accidental and might have referred to the texts written by "Uncle Sam" or someone might have handed him a note. Thakur alleged that the definition of OBCs for the Congress is "Only Brother-in-law Commission" and not Other Backward Classes. He also referred to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's opposition to reservation for OBCs.
Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, said Thakur's remarks on caste stand expunged. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav questioned Thakur for his statement and described it as inappropriate. "How can you ask anybody's caste," he asked. Pal said nobody in the House was allowed to ask the caste of any person.
The BJP member claimed that Gandhi was using "borrowed wisdom" to make speeches in an attempt to be a "cool dude". Citing excerpts from Tharoor's book "The Great Indian Novel", Thakur attacked successive prime ministers from the Congress using abbreviations, including "N-Ji, IG and RG-1".
At this point, Tharoor intervened and said Thakur's repeated references were from a satirical novel written years ago and the BJP leader did not understand the satire.
Thakur said the Congress had laid several "chakravyuh' for the country – the Partition, the imposition of Emergency, the Bofors scam and anti-Sikh riots, the narrative against the eternal religion (Sanatan) and hurting the politics of the country, its culture and traditions.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought the country out of the "chakravyuh" of the Congress. Thakur said the Congress and its leaders tried to trap Modi for the last 22 years, starting from his days as the chief minister of Gujarat.
"Your governments and leaders were defeated trying to trap him because he resides in the hearts of the people," the BJP leader said. Referring to Gandhi's remarks on the halwa ceremony ahead of the budget, Thakur referred to a series of scams, including Bofors, CWG, 2G, fodder, urea, coal, jeep and National Herald, and sought to know "who ate the halwa from the scams".
During his speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Gandhi displayed a photo of the halwa ceremony that precedes the printing of the budget, saying there was no Dalit, Adivasi or Backward Class person in the photo. He said 20 officers worked on preparing the country's budget and of them, only one was from the minority community and one from the OBC category.
The Congress said the Gandhi family's caste is martyrdom but the BJP-RSS will never understand that, as it slammed the ruling party over its MP Anurag Thakur's apparent questioning of Rahul Gandhi's caste.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said his party is ready to listen to any casteist abuse, but it is determined to get a caste census done. "Yes, I am an Indian and a Dalit, but I don't know how many we are. Yes, I am a tribal, but I don't know how many we are. Yes, I am an OBC, but I don't know how many we are. Today, we all need to assess how much our participation is in the progress of this country.
"The BJP-RSS people are conspiring to hide this from us, so that they can keep us backward and take over our rights by snatching reservation through conspiracies," Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X. The BJP-RSS believe in Manusmriti, but not even an iota on Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution, he alleged. They want to continue the 5,000 years old social exploitation in this country, he said.
Caste census is the need of the hour, so that social, economic and political empowerment can be implemented for the marginalized people, he asserted. "So that we can take advantage of equal opportunity and share," Kharge added.
But the Modi government is "depriving us" of this, he alleged. "'Ginti Karo (get a counting done)' is our resolution. The Indian National Congress is ready to listen to any casteist abuse, but we are determined to carry out the caste census!" Kharge said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came down heavily on Thakur's apparent questioning of Rahul Gandhi's caste in the Lok Sabha.
"A socio-economic caste census is the demand of 80 per cent of the people of this country. Today, it was said in Parliament that those whose caste is not known talk about a caste census," she said in a post in Hindi on X. Will 80 per cent of India's population be abused in Parliament now, she asked. "(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi should clarify whether this happened at his behest," she added.
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the words used by Thakur for Rahul Gandhi are echoing in the minds of people and they are angry over it. "The real face of the BJP has come to the fore. This mindset can only be of the BJP that such abuses are used for a person who is the son of a family of martyrs. He is told that your caste is not known. We will tell you what his caste is. Rahul Gandhi's father is a martyr and this family's caste is martyrdom. This the RSS, the BJP and Thakur can never understand," Khera said in a video statement.
He said the Congress does not want the BJP's apology over the issue. "The caste census will take place in the country. You can abuse the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress as much as you want, but this fight will continue. Justice will be done," Khera said.