Anurag Thakur's apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi's caste triggers row in Lok Sabha
New Delhi, Jul 30: BJP leader Anurag Thakur's apparent reference to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's caste during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday triggered an ugly spat between the opposition and treasury benches.
Gandhi accused Thakur of insulting and abusing him during the debate but asserted that he would not seek any apology from the former Union minister.
Questioning the Congress' stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered an uproar and had Congress members trooping into the Well of the Lok Sabha.
"Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Launching a scathing attack on Gandhi for his "chakravyuh" jibe at the BJP-led government a day earlier, Thakur cited purported portions from a book authored by Shashi Tharoor to hit out at successive Congress governments since 1947 and alleged the former Congress chief misinterpreted his position of LoP as "leader of propaganda".
Thakur also took a jibe at Gandhi, who stood up twice to counter his remarks targeting the previous Congress governments.
The BJP MP from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur claimed that Gandhi had already made his remarks but sought permission to speak again after someone passed a chit to him.
"Udhar ki buddhi se rajniti nahi chalti (You can't indulge in politics on borrowed wisdom)," Thakur said.
The former Union minister said one of the synonyms for lotus is Rajiv, the name of Rahul Gandhi's father and former prime minister.
"You linked lotus with violence. Does that mean you also link Rajiv with violence?" the BJP MP asked.
Thakur alleged that the definition of OBCs for Congress is "Only Brother-in-law Commission" and not Other Backward Classes. He also referred to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's opposition to reservation for OBCs.
Without taking any names, Thakur said a few people are "accidental Hindus" and their knowledge of the Mahabharat is also accidental.
Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, said Thakur's remarks on caste stand expunged.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav questioned Thakur for his statement and described it as inappropriate. "How can you ask anybody's caste?" he posed.
Pal said nobody in the House is allowed to ask the caste of any person.
During the course of his speech, Thakur alleged that Rahul Gandhi's speeches are written by "Uncle Sam", an apparent reference to party leader Sam Pitroda. The BJP member claimed that Gandhi was using "borrowed wisdom" to make speeches in an attempt to be a "cool dude".
He also said that reality and not "reels" make a "real" politician.
Citing excerpts from Tharoor's book "The Great Indian Novel", the Thakur attacked successive prime ministers from the Congress using abbreviations, including "N-Ji, IG and RG 1".
At this point, Tharoor intervened and said Thakur's repeated references were from a satirical novel written years ago and the BJP leader did not understand the satire.
The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said he has written several other books which are not being quoted by Thakur because it is not convenient for the narrative he wanted to convey.
Referring to Gandhi's remarks on the halwa ceremony ahead of the budget, Thakur referred to a series of scams, including Bofors, CWG, 2G, fodder, urea, coal, jeep and National Herald, and sought to know "who ate the halwa from the scams".
During his speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday, 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.
He 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.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
