New Delhi, July 1 : When Rahul Gandhi rose to make his first speech as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha at 2 p.m. on Monday on the motion of thanks on President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of the Parliament, it was anticipated that the alleged NEET paper leak issue would find primacy in his address.

After all, Rahul Gandhi, his party Congress, and its allies have been raising this issue for over a fortnight now.

However, the Congress MP prioritised it differently as the issue figured for a few minutes in his speech at about 3.25 p.m., 85 minutes after he began speaking.

What ironically found focus in his speech was a philosophical narration of Lord Shiva’s sitting position, the 'Abhay Mudra', preaching of Islam, Christianity, Guru Nanak Dev, Lord Buddha, and Mahavir.

He also displayed a poster of Lord Shiva despite opposition from Speaker Om Birla.

The centrality of raising these points was Rahul Gandhi connecting them with his own position, which he claimed was the opposition's stand -- “don’t scare, don’t get scared”.

He spoke on these issues for about half an hour at the beginning of his speech and again referred to them towards the end of his address.

This, incidentally, became the most contentious part of his 110-minute speech, including interruptions and clarifications from the treasury benches.

Rahul Gandhi did arouse passion in the opposition benches, but his entire speech also gave the impression that he cares less, at times completely ignores facts, but goes on hammering the half-truths despite repeated clarifications and presentation of official facts from the government side.

His statement that those who call themselves 'Hindu' talk of violence and unleash violence came in for strong objection from no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister asked how could the Leader of Opposition paint the entire Hindu community as violence-prone, something that was beyond comprehension.

The Prime Minister later added that constitutionality and parliamentary practices have taught him that he should take the Leader of Opposition in all seriousness to stress the point that Rahul Gandhi was digressing from the established norms and practices.

The Congress leader found his defence in what RJD chief Lalu Yadav had said – that the BJP members were not Hindus, least of all protectors of Hinduism.