Poetic PM meets BJP’s dry wit
30 Aug 2012 4:02 AM IST
In the 1990s as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surged ahead in electoral politics, its leader in Lok Sabha Atal Bihari Vajpayee used the forums of both Parliament and other public functions to shoot occasional but piercing barbs at the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government. Once at a public function, Rao and Vajpayee shared the dais, where Rao used the sobriquet of guru (master tactician) for Vajpayee. The BJP leader was quick with his repartee, calling Rao guru ghantal (a cunning person).
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pushed to the wall on the alleged coal block allotment scam, on Monday fell back on verse to express his angst, 'Hazaron jawabo se achchi hai khamoshi meri/Na jaane kitne sawalo ki aabru rakhe' ('My silence is better than a thousand answers; who knows the honour of how many questions it keeps'). Having monopolised the use of verse during the Vajpayee era to let loose political fusillade, the BJP leaders on Monday were at loss of verse to counter Singh and what they could manage was terse prose from the senior leader Sushma Swaraj, 'Agar main desi bhasha mein kahoon to isme Congress ko mota maal mila hain' ('If I use a colloquial expression, the Congress has made good money').
Little did Swaraj realise that her acerbic comment would by default pitch her against the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is best known for political tom-foolery. Making a reference to the former BJP ministers and mine barons, who are now in jail, Yadav was quick to enquire, 'We want to know who used to take mota maal from the Reddy brothers of Karnataka.' With the Congress alleging the role of BJP chief ministers in the coal scam, Swaraj knew that she had to quickly repair her breached defences.
Realising the danger of rebutting Yadav on camera, she put the Congress and the Reddy brothers on the same side in a tweet: 'I want to tell them and the country that they are the ones who got the mota maal from the Reddy brothers.' Next, the Congress sympathisers may well post her photo blessing the Reddy brothers. Probably the prime minister had rightly said about his silence, 'Na jaane [yeh] kitne sawalo ki aabru rakhe.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pushed to the wall on the alleged coal block allotment scam, on Monday fell back on verse to express his angst, 'Hazaron jawabo se achchi hai khamoshi meri/Na jaane kitne sawalo ki aabru rakhe' ('My silence is better than a thousand answers; who knows the honour of how many questions it keeps'). Having monopolised the use of verse during the Vajpayee era to let loose political fusillade, the BJP leaders on Monday were at loss of verse to counter Singh and what they could manage was terse prose from the senior leader Sushma Swaraj, 'Agar main desi bhasha mein kahoon to isme Congress ko mota maal mila hain' ('If I use a colloquial expression, the Congress has made good money').
Little did Swaraj realise that her acerbic comment would by default pitch her against the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is best known for political tom-foolery. Making a reference to the former BJP ministers and mine barons, who are now in jail, Yadav was quick to enquire, 'We want to know who used to take mota maal from the Reddy brothers of Karnataka.' With the Congress alleging the role of BJP chief ministers in the coal scam, Swaraj knew that she had to quickly repair her breached defences.
Realising the danger of rebutting Yadav on camera, she put the Congress and the Reddy brothers on the same side in a tweet: 'I want to tell them and the country that they are the ones who got the mota maal from the Reddy brothers.' Next, the Congress sympathisers may well post her photo blessing the Reddy brothers. Probably the prime minister had rightly said about his silence, 'Na jaane [yeh] kitne sawalo ki aabru rakhe.'
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