Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday cited V D Savarkar’s remarks that there was nothing Indian about the Constitution and took a jibe at the BJP, saying that by talking of protecting the Constitution, the ruling party is “ridiculing” Savarkar.
Participating in a debate on 75 years of adoption of the Constitution, the Congress leader said Savarkar, who is seen as an ideologue of the BJP and RSS, had said there is nothing Indian about the Constitution, and that he preferred Hindu religious text ‘Manusmriti’ to it.
He asserted that Constitution is a document of modern India but it could never have been written without ancient India and her ideas.He said a battle is taking place in India, and recited the story of Eklavya’ who had sacrificed his thumb as a tribute to Guru Dronacharya.
“When you give Dharavi to Adani, you chop off the thumb of the small and medium businesses there…You have fired tear gas shells on farmers outside Delhi, the farmers are asking for fair prices…You are cutting the thumb of that farmer,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said that the ideology of INDIA Alliance brought the Constitution of the country, together we safeguard the Constitution. He recalled that Ambedkar ji had said that if there is political equality but no social and economic equality, political equality will be destroyed…Today, it is before everyone.
“Political equality has ended. All of India’s institutions have been captured. There is no more social equality. There is no economic equality anymore. That is why, our next step would be Caste Census. We want to show the country whose thumbs you chop off. We want to show Dalits, Adivasis, Backwards, farmers, labourers whose thumbs have been chopped off. So, we will have a Caste Census and there will be a new kind of development in India,” he added.
“Through lateral entry, you are cutting the thumb of youths, OBCs, and SCs. Speaker sir, the way Eklavya practised, the same way youth practice for exams. Earlier, youth would wake up and train, run. When you start Agniveer, you have cut their thumbs. When you leak papers, you cut the thumb of the youths”, he pointed out.
Rahul Gandhi deplored that today outside Delhi, you have fired tear gas and hurt farmers by lathicharge. “When you give benefits to Adani and Ambani you cut the farmers’ thumbs,” he said.