Revanth stirs up caste row, says FM mocks his Hindi

Hyderabad: A poser during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha on the plummeting rupee value devolved into a verbal spat between Congress MP from Malkajgiri A. Revanth Reddy, who is also the Telangana Congress president, and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, after the latter spoke of his  "weak Hindi." This prompted Revanth Reddy to invoke caste pointers, calling himself a "Shudra" while referring to her as a "Brahmanvadi" due to her Hindi proficiency.

Revanth Reddy, while asking what steps the Centre was taking to prevent the rupee value from falling further, had criticised the Modi government for borrowing heavily.

Responding to his question, Nirmala Sitharaman stated, "The man from Telangana says his Hindi is weak. Because my Hindi is also weak, I will respond in weak Hindi.”

Revanth Reddy expressed strong objection to the FM's "mocking” at his Hindi, saying, "She commented on my language, which is in a bad taste. I may be a Shudra, and I may not be able to speak fluent Hindi, but she may be a Brahmanvadi who can.” After the Congress MP claimed that the FM had commented about his Hindi proficiency because he was from a lower caste, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla warned members not to make any references to caste or religion in the House.

“Anyone here should never use such words in the House. Otherwise, I will have to take action against such a member,” the Speaker said.

Birla also took serious exception to Revanth Reddy asking him not to interrupt when he was asking his question. The issue erupted when Revanth Reddy referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's earlier remark, as Gujarat Chief Minister, that the rupee was in the ICU.

The Speaker objected to the comment and asked Revanth Reddy to restrict himself to the question. Revanth Reddy shot back: “Sir, you cannot interrupt.”

The Speaker turned to the Congress House leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and said: “Make members understand that they should never comment on the Speaker in the future 'that you (Speaker) cannot interrupt'. Did you understand,” Birla said.

Following the Lok Sabha proceedings, Revanth Reddy posted on Twitter: “It is regretful how @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman used such divisive language in the Parliament. Like Britishers, BJP has always followed the Politics of Divide & rule. They have divided the people of the country on the basis of language,food,caste & religion.”

Earlier, during Question Hour, Revanth Reddy stated that the rupee value had reached an all-time low of around 83 to the dollar, and questioned what measures the Centre was taking to prevent it from falling further. While criticising the BJP government for pushing the country into debt, the Congress MP stated that, in comparison to the governments prior to 2014, which had borrowed `55,87,149 crore, the debt incurred by the Modi government in eight years from 2014 totalled `80,00,744 crore.

He slammed the Modi government for failing to make a single policy decision to instil confidence among investors at a time when optimism in the market was dwindling.

When the rupee was at 66 against the dollar, Reddy said, Modi, then the Gujarat Chief Minister, had said the currency was in intensive care. At `83.20 to the dollar, the rupee appears to be headed for the morgue, said the Congress MP.

In her response, the FM stated that Revanth Reddy, while referring to Modi's previous remarks on the rupee value, should have also referred to the economic indicators. "The economy was definitely in the intensive care unit at the time, she said. “India was kept in the fragile five." Sitharaman claimed that despite the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, India was the fastest growing economy.

"It is unfortunate that some members of Parliament are envious of the country's growing economy. The opposition has a problem with India being the fastest growing economy. Everyone should be proud of India's progress, but some see it as a joke. The Indian rupee has performed well against all currencies. The Reserve Bank of India has used its foreign exchange reserves to intervene in the market to ensure that the dollar-rupee fluctuation does not become excessive," Sitharaman retorted.