An uproar erupted in Lok Sabha on Tuesday after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anurag Thakur's comments at the Congress party over the issue of caste census. Launching an attack on the party and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Thakur said, "Those whose caste is not known, talks about caste census."
Thakur also targeted the Congress leader over his current position and said, "They should know that the full form of LoP is Leader of Opposition, not leader of propaganda."
His remarks came a day after Gandhi, while participating in the debate in the Lok Sabha on Budget 2024-25, said the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will ensure that a legal guarantee for MSP as well as a caste census is passed by the House.
Following Thakur's comments, Gandhi said he does not expect an apology from the Hamirpur MP. "Whoever raises the issues of Adivasi, Dalit and the backward, is abused. I will happily accept these abuses. Anurag Thakur has abused me and insulted me. But I do not want any apology from him," said Gandhi.
A day before, in a speech that invoked the Mahabharat and led to an uproar in the House, the former Congress chief alleged that the sole aim of the Union Budget 2024 is to strengthen the framework of big businesses, political monopoly that destroys the democratic structure, and the deep state or the agencies.
"There is an atmosphere of fear and that fear has pervaded every aspect of our country. In the BJP only one man is allowed to dream to be the Prime Minister. If the defence minister wants to be PM, there is a big problem, there is fear. This fear has been spread throughout the country...why is it that my friends in the BJP are terrified, ministers are terrified, farmers, workers are terrified?" the Congress leader asked.
Gandhi said the middle class of the country probably supported the Prime Minister before this budget.
"When during the Covid pandemic the Prime Minister asked the middle class to bang plates and switch on mobile lights and they did. But in this budget, you have stabbed the same middle class in the back with one knife and in the chest with another. The cancellation of indexation and increase in capital gains tax were examples of that," he said.
(With agency inputs)
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