Rahul Gandhi claims Enforcement Directorate raid being planned against him

The Leader of Opposition said that the Centre would target him for his Lok Sabha speech on the Budget, in which he invoked the ‘chakravyuh’ metaphor.

Aug 2, 2024 - 18:30

Rahul Gandhi claims Enforcement Directorate raid being planned against him

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged on Friday that an Enforcement Directorate raid is being planned against him for invoking the “chakravyuh” metaphor in his Lok Sabha speech on the Union Budget.

The chakravyuh is a military formation depicted in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in which soldiers arrange themselves into a maze of seven defensive walls resembling a disc (chakra) or blooming lotus when viewed from above.

“Apparently, 2 in 1 didn’t like my chakravyuh speech,” Gandhi said in a post on X, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah. “ED [Enforcement Directorate] ‘insiders’ tell me a raid is being planned. Waiting with open arms…Chai and biscuits on me.”

The Congress MP had said in the Lok Sabha on Monday that a modern, 21st-century version of the chakravyuh was being used to attack India, the Hindustan Times reported.

“It is in the form of a lotus and the prime minister wears the symbol on his chest,” the Rae Bareli MP said, referring to the logo of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “What was done with Abhimanyu is being done with India, with its youth, women, farmers and small and medium businesses.”

Abhimanyu is a character in the Mahabharata who is dishonourably killed in battle by six opponents.

According to Gandhi,...