Invoking Mahabharat in LS is in vogue: Speaker Om Birla

02 Aug 2024 Evaluate

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla today said that stories of the Hindu epic Mahabharata are being narrated a lot in the House. Om Birla made the comment while telling an MP not to narrate stories but to ask to-the-point questions.

The incident took place during the Question Hour in the House when BJP MP from Odisha's Bargarh, Pradip Purohit, while asking a question to the Union Ayush minister, referred to an ayurvedic college and traced back the history of the herbs found in the area to ancient times. On this, Om Birla said that you should not narrate Mahabharata, ask questions (aap Mahabharat mat sunao, aap prashna pooch) and added that nowadays, stories of the Mahabharata are being narrated a lot here (Aaj kal, Mahabharat sunane ka kissa zyada chala hai yahan par).

This comes days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's ‘Chakravyuh’ speech in the Lok Sabha targeting BJP. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi invoked the Mahabharata in the House, claiming that an atmosphere of fear prevails all around with a group of six trapping the entire country in a ‘chakravyuh’ (a trap). His reference was to the Mahabharat epic in which Abhimanyu was killed in a ‘chakravyuh’. Congress leader said that the BJP government has created a ‘chakravyuh’ with the concentration of financial power, institutions such as CBI, ED and Income Tax and with political executives and large business groups and also noted that the 'chakravyuh' is also called a 'padmavyuh' due to its resemblance to a lotus, which is the BJP's election symbol.

BJP's Anurag Thakur later hit back at Gandhi, saying the Congress had laid several 'chakravyuh' for the country. Thakur had said that PM Narendra Modi took the country out of the 'chakravyuh' of the Congress.