Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's facepalm reaction to Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday went viral on social media, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) using the same to slam the leader later.
Speaking in Lok Sabha on Monday, Rahul 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.
Rahul Gandhi 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.
"Twenty officers have prepared the budget of India, in which there is only one minority and one OBC. The budget halwa is being distributed, but 73 per cent of the country's people are not included in it," said Rahul Gandhi.
At this point, the Finance Minister placed her hands over her face with a smile and a disapproving nod.
Reacting to the same, the Congress leader then said, "The Finance Minister is laughing. It is quite astonishing. This is not a laughing matter, madam. This is about caste census. It will change the country".
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In a speech that invoked the Mahabharat and led to an uproar in the House, prompting Speaker Om Birla to intervene frequently, the former Congress chief alleged that the sole aim of the Union Budget 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.
Thousands of years ago in Haryana's Kurukshetra, six people killed a youth, Abhimanyu, in a 'Chakravyuh', he said, adding that a 'Chakravyuh' has violence and fear.
Gandhi's reference was to the Mahabharat legend according to which Abhimanyu was killed in a 'Chakravyuh'. 'Chakravyuh' refers to a multi-layered military formation aimed at trapping a warrior by opponents placed strategically in an alignment resembling a lotus-shaped labyrinth.
He said the 'Chakravyuh' is also called a 'padmavyuh' for its resemblance to a lotus (BJP's election symbol) formation.
"In the 21st century, another 'Chakravyuh' has been prepared. It is in the form of lotus and the prime minister (Narendra Modi) wears the symbol on his chest. What was done with Abhinmanyu is being done with India, with its youth, women, farmers and small and medium businesses," he said.
Today also, there are six people at the centre of the 'Chakravyuh', including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Gandhi took the name of four more people but Speaker Om Birla disallowed it citing that they were not members of the House and hence cannot be named.
