Rahul Gandhi's first speech as opposition leader in Parliament on July 1 was treated like it was a major national event, at least in Kerala. But the Left, particularly the CPM, seems amused by, or even a bit dismissive of, the attention the speech had commanded in Kerala.
"It looked like the media in Kerala did not expect Rahul Gandhi to make a speech like this. Or else what was the need to write about Rahul Gandhi's speech like it was a major win in one day cricket," is how Finance Minister K N Balagopal responded to the buzz around Rahul's speech. He was speaking during the discussion of the Finance Bill in the Assembly on July 2.
It was Congress MLA P C Vishnunath who first brought to the Assembly's notice the indifference of the CPM. "Rahul Gandhi's speech had deeply inspired secular-minded people in the country. And the media had reported his speech with great importance," Vishnunath said during the discussion of the Finance Bill.
He then read out the banner headlines of all major Malayalam dailies. All of them had a celebratory tone, except 'Deshabhimani'. In fact, unlike the other dailies, the CPM mouthpiece did not carry Rahul's speech on page one.
"Of course, there was a news item on one of the inside pages. And that news item reported not about Rahul Gandhi's speech but what the BJP thought of his speech," Vishnunath said, holding up the photostat of the news cutting that appeared inside 'Deshabhimani'. The headline of the single-column news item: 'BJP says Rahul insulted Hindus'.
A report with the same spin appeared in another newspaper, Vishnunath said holding up the 'Janmabhumi' daily, the BJP's official organ. "Though it was critical of Rahul Gandhi, 'Janmabhumi' at least showed the courtesy of carrying a picture of him on its front page. 'Deshabhimani' was not ready for even that," Vishnunath said.
RSS riddle in Rahul's speech
It was left to former minister K T Jaleel not just to defend 'Deshabhimani' but also to argue why Rahul's speech did not merit a page one slot.
He said Rahul Gandhi had not used the word 'RSS' anywhere in his speech. Curiously, none on the UDF side told Jaleel that a portion of the speech where he mentioned the RSS ("Narendra Modi is not the whole Hindu community, BJP is not the whole Hindu community, RSS is not the whole Hindu community.") was actually expunged.
Jaleel said Rahul did attack the BJP but that was only because it was a political party that stood in the way of Congress and power. "Has anyone ever doubted that the RSS provides the BJP's ideological foundation? Still, Rahul Gandhi has not used the word 'RSS' in his speech. Not just that, he has not used the word that has seriously troubled and tormented an entire community. CAA. Did you hear him utter the word CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). Also, did he speak anything of the National Register of Citizens?" he said.
There was more to come. "The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had bulldozed thousands of homes in Uttar Pradesh just because they had voted for the INDIA bloc. Why didn't Rahul visit these places and register his protest during his speech in Parliament? Five MLAs in UP are in jail. Aren't these issues important or grave enough for Rahul Gandhi," he said.
Jaleel ended his speech with a poser to the next speaker, former minister and Congress MLA A P Anil Kumar. "Why did Rahul Gandhi fail to echo the fears of a community in Parliament? I hope Anil Kumar will answer my question."
Rahul vs RSS
Jaleel's anti-Rahul diatribe was apparently so provocative that Anil Kumar forgot that he was supposed to discuss the Finance Bill. He went charging straight at Jaleel from the get-go.
"I felt as though I had heard the sound of the BJP in this house through Jaleel," he said. "Jaleel was asking whether Rahul Gandhi had ever spoken against the RSS. Was it not for attacking the RSS that he was disqualified from Parliament," he said.
(Rahul was disqualified from Parliament on March 24, 2023, after a Surat court had convicted him for saying in a political rally in 2019 "Why do all thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names?")
"If there is one leader in India who had the spine to speak against Savarkar even when Shiv Sena objected, it is Rahul Gandhi," he said. (During the Maharashtra leg of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi had said that Savarkar had pleaded with the British for pardon, seriously annoying ally Uddhav Thackeray.)
Modi/Pinarayi: Identical twins
Anil said he was not surprised by Deshabhimani's decision to blackout Rahul Gandhi's speech. "If they had carried it, communists would have thought that Rahul Gandhi was speaking about Pinarayi Vijayan," he said.
Anil said that Rahul Gandhi was actually speaking about Narendra Modi when he said that central agencies like the ED and CBI were misused to threaten and harass Congress leaders. Modi had used these agencies even to blackmail Congress leaders to switch over to the BJP, he said.
"But all that Rahul Gandhi said could also suggest the actions of Pinarayi Vijayan. Pinarayi is the only Chief Minister in the history of Kerala who has trapped opposition leaders in Vigilance cases simply because they had spoken against him," he said. He said Pinarayi, like Modi, had lured former KPCC office-bearers, Youth Congress leaders and even former MPs with plum posts. "Like Modi, Pinarayi too wants the Congress destroyed," he said.
John Brittas avenged
Jaleel had yet another reason for 'Deshabhimani' cold-shouldering Rahul's speech.
"Has 'Veekshanam' (the Congress mouthpiece) bothered to publish any of the powerful speeches made by Left MPs. John Brittas has made majestic speeches in Parliament for the minorities and downtrodden. Has the 'Chandrika' (Muslim League's official organ) ever reported even a word of these? And now on what grounds do you question 'Deshabhimani' for not giving Rahul Gandhi's speech," he said.
Facebook challenge
By attacking Rahul's speech, Jaleel wanted to make a larger political point about the inability of the Congress to take on Hindutva forces.
For rhetorical vindication, Jaleel threw a challenge at Vishnunath. "Have you ever put up a Facebook post against the BJP in your life? Have you ever condemned the RSS," he asked and gave the answer himself. "You will not because in a constituency (Kundra from where Vishnunath had won) where the RSS has the second largest number of votes in Kollam district, the BJP candidate polled just 6000 votes," he said, plainly accusing him of a deal with the BJP.
Jaleel also wanted to know how many Congress MLAs had dared to put up a Facebook post against the CAA, the National Register of Citizens, the Uniform Civil Code or the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir. "If one among you had done this, please stand up. At least raise your hands," he said.
When he kept repeating the challenge, Vishnunath stood up. "Initially, we thought we would ignore this. But since he attacked me personally, I would like to state that we have strongly opposed the CAA, and the BJP's government's oppressive anti-minority policies through our social media accounts, in front of the mainstream media, and even today inside this Assembly. And still to keep insisting that we have not done so is defamatory," Vishnunath said. He wanted Jaleel's "baseless" remarks to be expunged from the Assembly records.
This was not enough to rein in Jaleel. "My friend Vishnunath might have spoken about Kundara CIA," he made fun of Vishnunath. "But if you had written about the CAA as you say, show us the post now," he said. Vishnunath countered this once again. "I have organised night marches against these Bills in my constituency and these marches were shown live on my Facebook page," he said. "His repeated lies should not be in the Assembly records," he said. Speaker A N Shamseer assured him that it would be examined.