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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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).