(Dr Pentapati Pullarao)
In democracies, often Parliaments throw up national leaders. Most Indian prime ministers won political office because of their politics and not because of their oratory in parliament. India’s ‘s first prime minister Nehru worked in politics for 40 years, before he became prime minister. Other prime ministers who followed him were not great orators in parliament.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, PV. Narasimha Rao, Dr. Manmohan Singh were prime ministers, who were not great orators.
Narendra Modi became prime minister after being chief ministers of Gujarat. Of course, today Modi is recognized as a great orator. But oratory did not make Modi famous.
In the first parliament session of 2024 elections, Anurag Thakur, MP, aged 49, 5th. Term Lok Sabha MP, son of a former chief minister, from Himachal Pradesh made a big speech, which went viral. You may agree with him or not. But the fact is that in this session Anurag Thakur overshadowed even the prime minister, Finance Minister and Rahul Gandhi. Anurag Thakur’s speech is much talked about speech. This is truly remarkable since in recent years, speeches in parliament did not have much impact.
Indian parliament is designed after British Parliament. In British parliament, remarkable political careers have been made because an MP gave great speeches. Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Winston Churchill were great orators and also became prime ministers.
In Indian parliament, there were great opposition leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia, George Fernandez, Indrajit Gupta, Kripalani who made their reputations as parliamentary orators. Of course, Jawaharlal Nehru was a great orator too.
Anurag Thakur was a minister in last government. But Anurag was dropped because J.P. Nadda, also from Himachal Pradesh became Minister and there is no space for more ministers from a small state.
Cricket: Anurag Thakur was President of BCCI, the topmost body of cricket from 2015 to 2017. This was a post which gave him an All-India perspective. Anurag Thakur was also president of BJP Yuva Morcha for 3 terms. So, Anurag is a hard-core politician and also managed to win the highest cricket offices.
But Anurag Thakur’s recent speech in parliament on August 1. 2-024 has catapulted him as a leader to watch.
Anurag Thakur VS Rahul Gandhi speech on August 1, 2024, in Lok Sabha:
After the budget presentation of Nirmala Sitaraman, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the opposition spoke for nearly 3 hours. In his speech, Rahul Gandhi sharply criticized the BJP and the Prime Minister personally and even persoanllo7y attacked the Speaker Om Birla. Whether Rahul Gandhi is right or wrong, is his business.
There was much anxiety in BJP on who would reply to Rahul Gandhi and how he would fare. Anurag Thakur was not expected to deliver a stunning speech. Anurag Thakur did speak as an opposition MP earlier. But such speeches did not hit the headlines. Normally, Government speakers cite figures, policies and end up giving boring speeches.
But in his August 1, 2024, speech, Anurag Thakur focused on Rahul Gandhi and peppered his speech with wit, repartee and quick comebacks. A parliament speech becomes known, when it is sarcastic, witty and has one-liners, which seriously wound the opponent. Anurag Thakur delivered such a speech.
Anurag Thakur made some telling remarks and the most important was his single sentence on the demand for a caste census. Anurag Thakur said that people who cannot say what their caste is- are demanding caste census”. No names were mentioned, or abuses hurled. But this remark found its mark and it has since become viral. The prime minister posted Anurag’s speech on his social media.
The opposition could not hit back at Anurag Thakur. In parliamentary debates, long speeches are forgotten. Only biting remarks or the most comical have a life. Anurag Thakur’s speech has energized his party and also catapulted him as a foremost leader of his party.
There are demands that Anurag Thakur be made the next BJP President, as J P Nadda has to retire. Definitely, BJP needs him, and Anurag Thakur is now a political name.
But the point is that one speech is not enough. But sometimes one speech can take you into stardom and this August 1 speech in Lok Sabha has given a great boost to Anurag Thakur.
No one can predict the future, especially a political future. But Indian parliament has given an opportunity to Anurag Thakur to be noted as an orator. Let us see if Anurag Thakur will get a chance to shine.
(Author is a Political and Economic analyst based at New Delhi)
