On black money
Starting off with a taunt on the budgetary proposal allowing a window to domestic investors on announcing their illicit money within a stipulated period of time, Gandhi said that the government has come up with a 'Fair and Lovely Yojana' for financial malpractices.
"They launched a Fair and Lovely Yojana, to convert black money to white money. Modi ji had promised that he will put people with black money behind bars, now they have come up with ways to save those people," Rahul Gandhi said in Lok Sabha.
On inflation
Referring to the rising commodity prices, the Amethi MP questioned the promises made by the Prime Minister before the polls on controlling inflation.
"Before elections Modi ji said dal is Rs 70 per kilogram and he promised to bring down prices. But now dal is Rs 200 a kilogram," Gandhi said in Lok Sabha.
On the pre-poll promise on job creation
The Congress MP chose to exploit the issue of inadequate job creation and launched a strong attack on the Prime Minister. The Make in India logo — the Asiatic lion — created out of cogs and wheels also did not escape Gandhi's directed taunt.
"I don't know anything, I don't understand anything. I listen to the people, understand them and then speak on those issues in the House," Gandhi said. "I am not from the RSS. I make mistakes," he said, consciously referring to PM Modi's RSS background.
"Modi ji promised employment to the youth before the polls. Now the lion appears everywhere (Make in India logo). But tell us now how many jobs you have generated?" Gandhi asked the prime minister in Lok Sabha.
"You created this Make In India babbar sher. Where ever you see, you see the lion. Even on TV we can see the lion," Gandhi said in the Lower House.
On Modi phobia
Calling the Council of Ministers as a bunch of timid colleagues, the Amethi MP urged them to gather some courage and speak up in front of the Prime Minister.
"I fear a bit... Narendra Modi is a powerful man. I know you (ministers) are afraid of him. But even then you should speak up a bit," Gandhi said in an acute jibe to the Council of Ministers at the Centre.
"(Union Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley came to me and said that there was no better scheme than MNREGA, I asked him why he doesn't tell that to his boss? He was quiet after that," Gandhi said.
On Rohith Vemula's suicide and sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar
Criticising PM Modi for not uttering a word on Rohith Vemula, the Hyderabad Central University student who committed suicide in the campus last month, alleging victimisation due to his backward caste, the Amethi MP said the Prime Minister should have spoken on the issue.
"Modi ji did not call up Rohith Vemula's mother nor did he even speak on the issue," he said.
"What is JNU? Sixty percent of JNU students are from the Dalit community, OBC and different backward classes. We learn. We don't claim to know everything. I had heard Kanhaiya Kumar's whole speech of 20 minutes. Not a word in his speech was anti-national," Gandhi said.
Advising the government to listen to its people, the Congress vice president said, "A nation is the relationship between its people. It is nothing but the conversation between its citizens. When I salute the flag I am not saluting the cloth. I am saluting the relationships that the flag represents. When I protect the flag, I protect the conversations on which those relationships are built. I protect every single voice. But I pay special attention to the weakest- those that are most difficult to hear."
"You cannot trample JNU. Nor can you trample the country's poor citizens," Gandhi said in an apparent message to his voters outside Parliament.
Referring to the recent hooliganism in the JNU campus and in the Patiala House Court allegedly by AVBP members and a group of lawyers, the Congress second-in-command chose to take on the government.
"Which religion teaches you to hit teachers, professors? When the media, students and professors were attacked in the court, you did not utter a single word," Gandhi said pointing at the Prime Minister.
The Congress leader also brought to the notice of the House, the treatment he was subjected to allegedly by AVBP workers.
"Respecting the flag means respecting the opinion of every Indian. When I went to JNU, your ABVP workers showed me black flags. Whose opinion does the PM listen to? Whose opinion does he respect, his ministers?" Gandhi asked quipping that the ministers prefer to be "silent"" now.
"The country is not the PM, the PM is not the country. I felt proud that I still live in a country where it's possible to be confronted by people who don't hold the same view as yours. You have been taught by your teachers in RSS, that there is only one truth in the universe, your own and that nobody else’s opinion matters," the Congress number two said while seeking attention of PM Modi.
On Mahatma Gandhi and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Even those in their graves were not spared by the Amethi MP as he went on to ridicule Sangh ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
"Tell me one thing. I did not understand one thing. I said (Mahatma) Gandhi is ours and Savarkar is yours. What's wrong in that?" he asked. "Isn't Savarkar yours? Or have you thrown him out? Answer me," Gandhi said in Lok Sabha as the Opposition benches burst out in a peel of laughter.
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