Invoking Mahabharat in Lok Sabha is in vogue: Speaker Om Birla

New Delhi: Invoking the Mahabharat in the Lok Sabha is in vogue, Speaker Om Birla said on Friday while telling an MP not to narrate stories but ask to-the-point questions.

While asking a question to the Union Ayush minister, BJP member from Odisha's Bargarh Pradip Purohit referred to an ayurvedic college and traced back the history of the herbs found in the area to ancient times. "Do not tell stories, ask the question (aap Mahabharat mat sunao, aap prashna poocho)," Birla told the member during the Question Hour.

The speaker then said invoking the Mahabharat is in vogue these days. "Aaj kal, Mahabharat sunane ka kissa zyada chala hai yahan par," Birla said.

Using the 'chakravyuh' metaphor as a leitmotif, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had earlier this week claimed that an atmosphere of fear prevails all around with a group of six trapping the entire country in a 'chakravyuh'.

In a speech that invoked the Mahabharat, the former Congress chief alleged that the sole aim of the Union Budget was to strengthen the framework of big businesses, political monopoly that destroys the democratic structure, and the deep state or the agencies.

BJP's Anurag Thakur had hit back at Gandhi, saying the Congress had laid several 'chakravyuh' for the country – the first being Partition of the nation, the second gift to Chinese, the third being imposition of Emergency, fourth being the Bofors scam and anti-Sikh riots, the fifth being spinning a narrative against the eternal religion (sanatan) and the sixth being hurting the politics of the country, its culture and traditions.

Thakur had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the country out of the 'chakravyuh' of the Congress.

Gandhi's reference was to the Mahabharat legend according to which Abhimanyu was killed in a 'chakravyuh'.

'Chakravyuh' refers to a multi-layered military formation aimed at trapping a warrior by opponents placed strategically in an alignment resembling a lotus-shaped labyrinth.