Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday during the discussion on no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that his “arrogance was burning India like Ravana’s arrogance got Lanka burned”.
“If we want to hear the voice of people, we will have to crush our arrogance as Ravana was not killed by Lord Ram but his arrogance got him killed and in the same manner Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrogance is burning the whole country.”
He said that it was not Lord Hanuman who burned Lanka, but it was arrogance of Ravana that got the Lanka destroyed.
Gandhi made the remarks while speaking in the Lok Sabha in support of the no-confidence motion.
Before starting his speech in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi first thanked Speaker Om Birla for re-instating him as the MP.
“First of all want to thank you as you reinstated me in Lok Sabha. And last time when I spoke, I might have caused you trouble. I apologise to you for that. But I spoke the truth. Today, my friends in BJP need not be scared because my speech today is not on that.”
Following this, the members from the Treasury Bench objected to his comments.
Referring to the words of famous poet Rumi, Rahul Gandhi said said, “Rumi had said ‘Jo shabd dil se aate hai, wo shabd dil me jate hai’.”
“So I would not be speaking from my mind but from my heart,” he said adding that last year, for over 130 days I walked from one corner of India to another corner, not alone but with many people.
Treasury members again raised their voice on this.
“Initially, when I started (the Bharat Jodo Yatra), I had in my mind that walking 25 km is no big deal if I can run 8 to 10 km every day. Today, when I look at that — it was arrogance. I had arrogance in my heart at that time. But India erases arrogance, erases it in a second. So, within 2-3 days, my knees started hurting, it was an old injury. In the first few days, the wolf became an ant. ‘Jo Hindustan ko ahankar se dekhne nikla, nikla tha wo poora ka poora ahankar gayab ho gaya (The arrogance with which I had come to see India, that arrogance was wiped out)’,” he said.
He then said, ‘After sometime I started realising that the thing which I loved, the thing for which I am ready to die, the thing I am ready to go to prison of Modiji and for the thing for which I was abused for 10 years, I wanted to understand that. What is this, which has captured my heart, I wanted to understand that.”
Sharing his experience of the Yatra from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari to Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar, the Congress MP said, “Everyday I walked with fear and whenever this fear grew some power helped me. One day, I was unable to bear the pain and a young girl gave me a letter that read, don’t worry I am walking with you. She saw my injury and she gave her power. And lakhs of people gave me the power.”
He then said that in the first few days he spoke his mind to the people but after sometime he started listening to them and then he shared their pain.
“After I started listening to the voice of the people and understood their pain, the yatra changed completely. I could not listen to the voice of crowd but the voice of the people who spoke to me, their pain, their wounds and their words became mine,” he shared.
He further said that people say that this is a country while some say there is different languages, different religions.
“This country is a voice and it is the truth. This country is the voice of people, their pain, and their hardships. And if we have to listen to the voice then we have to wipe the arrogance, desires, dreams. When we remove our dream then only we can listen to the voice of India,” he said.
“Now you will ask why you kept this in no-confidence motion? Because if we have to listen to the voice of India then we have to remove the hatred,” Rahul Gandhi explained.
Targeting the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi said, “When I said that India is a voice of people, the heart, that voice has been murdered in India. It means Bharat Mata has been killed in Manipur. By killing the people of Manipur you have murdered Manipur. You are anti-national as you have killed Bharat Mata (mother India).
“And it is the reason why your Prime Minister cannot go to Manipur as he has killed India in Manipur and in the hearts of the people of Manipur,” he said.
He also said that you (BJP) have killed Bharat Mata in Manipur and till the time you don’t stop voilence you are murdering India.
“The armed forces can bring normalcy in one day but you are not using it as you want to kill India in Manipur. If Modi cannot listen to the hearts of people of India…,” he said.
“Lanka was not burned by Lord Hanuman but it was burned by the arrogance of Ravana. Ram did not kill Ravana but the arrogance of Ravana killed him. You are throwing kerosene in entire India. You threw kerosene in Manipur and then you ignited it. Now you are doing that in Haryana. You are trying to burn entire India and you are trying to kill India,” Rahul Gandhi added. –IANS