Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's much-anticipated speech in the Lok Sabha in reply to the motion of thanks to the President's address was an action-packed affair. Lasting nearly two hours, its themes were carefully chosen and vigorously articulated to rile the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At the very outset, Rahul raised the hackles of the BJP by showing a poster of Lord Shiva and talking about what the deity stood for. When the BJP MPs were up on their feet, protesting, he expressed his amusement at the party opposing depiction of Lord Shiva in the house. When Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla objected, he kept it aside, but went on to display posters depicting the deities and messages of other religions such as Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Jainism. Rahul said the message of all religions was not to be afraid and to not be violent. He said the BJP, which called itself Hindu, on the contrary, preached and practiced violence.
This resulted in PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh rising to object to Rahul's comments and claim that he was insulting Hindus. “Calling the entire Hindu community violent is a very serious charge,” Modi got up and said. Rahul was ready with his response. He asserted: “PM Modi, BJP-RSS are not the entire Hindu community.”
Rahul's speech, which saw numerous interjections and members on both sides of the aisle making references to the rule book, included all the themes that the Congress and the INDIA alliance have highlighted in the Lok Sabha elections, such as the misuse of investigating agencies to target opposition leaders, the farmers' plight, the Agniveer scheme and the NEET issue.
There were numerous occasions when Rahul made potshots at Modi. He referred to Modi's “parmatma” remark made in a TV interview. He also claimed that the PM had initially planned to contest from Ayodhya, but he received survey inputs from the constituency which said he would be defeated there and hence he contested from Varanasi. At this point, he turned to Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, and said he had asked him when it became clear to him that he was going to win and Prasad had said he knew from the very beginning that the BJP would lose the seat.
PM Modi got up twice to interject. Several ministers objected to various comments made by Rahul. The LoP also made a reference to the opposition's perception that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla deferred to the ruling BJP, especially the Prime Minister. He referred to the occasion when both he and Modi escorted Birla to the Speaker's chair upon his election to the post. He said while Birla stood upright while shaking hands with him, he bowed before Modi. Birla did retort, saying he was followed the Indian tradition of deferring to elders when he bowed before the Prime Minister.
There was a back-handed compliment too for the BJP as he congratulated the party for winning 240 seats. “At least accept my congratulations,” he said to the ruling party MPs. Rahul also spoke about representing not just the Congress but the entire opposition and made an effort to project the INDIA alliance as a united force.