New Delhi: It was 1.06 pm and Congress president Rahul Gandhi stood to participate in the discussion over no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The speech of Rahul has finally evolved him as the heir of Congress.
After thanking Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Gandhi 'taunted' at ruling party by saying that he would speak in Hindi so they should not be afraid of it.
Prior to his surprising jadu ki jhappi moment and speech, almost every member of the treasury benches and a few members of opposition parties might not have anticipated that Gandhi scion's speech would not only bring smiles on the face Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but it would also instil a confidence among masses.
"You may call me Pappu, but I don't hate you," Rahul said while looking directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then walking across to embrace him.
It may not have been the "earthquake" he had promised once, but the Congress president's jaw-dropping gesture during the no-confidence motion debate in parliament came close to it, many lawmakers said.
In a free-wheeling talk, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla took a jibe at Rahul saying that the 'earthquake' has just started and wait for while to feel it's 'magnitude'.
Though it was difficult to measure the 'magnitude' of his speech on the Richter scale, his speech has set the tone for the upcoming general election in 2019.
According to a noted political commentator Arvind Mohan, the speech of Rahul Gandhi has established himself as the leader of the oldest party.
"Rahul speech in the Parliament has proved that he is now fully ready to lead the party from the front. It's a big answer to all those who were raising doubts over his leadership qualities," Mohan said.
During his over 45 minute speech, Rahul trounced government on every issue starting from job creation, bringing back black money, loan waiver to farmers, implementation of GST, the roll-out of demonetisation, controversial Rafale deal, mob lynching, the welfare of backward communities, etc.
Hitting out at the government, Gandhi said, "The PM had promised to provide 2 crore employment to youth in every year, but as per the survey report of Labour Bureau, only 4 lakh jobs have been provided to youth in the year 2016."
While taking on Modi government on demonetisation issue, Congress president said, "Hopefully, the PM might have not known that farmers, workers and weaker sections of the society transact in cash,
that's why he took the decision to ban high currency notes. Don't know from where he (Modi) got the message to do so?"
In a photo-op that will be recalled for years to come, Congress president Gandhi scion gave a surprise hug to PM Narendra Modi after a blistering attack on the government in a speech that was the sharpest Rahul has ever delivered.
At one point, he even said, "The whole country has seen, I've spoken clearly about PM and now he cannot look me in the eyes," leading Modi to break into a smile.
Gandhi's speech was full of such provocations and theatrics. At one point he even claimed, after an interruption of a few minutes, that not just opposition leaders but even BJP's own leaders had privately commended him on his speech.