New Delhi: The mayhem on the Indian economy has degenerated into personal jibes, turning the ‘80-year old job applicant,’ as described by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley into an ‘80-year old warrior’ as former union finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha lashed out in response to PM Modi calling him “Shalya”, a non-descript character in the Mahabharat epic. Without naming either, Sinha talked about “two most infamous” figures among the Kaurava clan – Duryodhana and Dushasana.
Speaking at a book release function on Thursday, Sinha said, “Mahabharata is the flavour of discourse these days. Characters from Mahabharata have suddenly appeared. Somebody talked of Shalya yesterday. Shalya was the (maternal) uncle of Nukul and Sahadev, the youngest brothers of the Pandavas. Duryodhana played a trick on him and Duryodhana misguided him by throwing a feast.”
He added, “There are a large number of interesting characters in the Mahabharata. Out of the 100 Kaurava brothers, you only remember Duryodhana and Dushasana. Nobody remembers the third brother. Only two became infamous.” As the packed audience burst into thunderous applause, Sinha asked, “Need I say anymore?”
Interestingly, the book released at the function is authored by Congress spoke-sperson and former I&B minister Manish Tewari. Another speaker twisting the knife into the government’s body from the same dais was Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Sinha knew the importance of this symbolism but boldly declared, “I know this will send out a political message. But I don’t care. I am past caring.”
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He continued, “Some people believe I have reached the ripe old age of 80 and am still looking for a job. The phrase used was – job applicant at 80. I come from a part of the country which produced Babu Kunwar Singh. He was a freedom fighter of 1857 and when he joined that war, he was 80! There may be a bar on joining government service at 80 but no bar on fighting for freedom.”
Asked about the charge that he revolted because his application for becoming the BRICS bank chairman was not entertained by the Modi government, Sinha said, “I was never a candidate. I have been the Finance Minister and foreign minister of India. They could have talked about the post of UN Secretary General, World Bank chairman… BRICS bank, this tut-punjia (rag-tag) job?”
Sinha said there was a ploy to turn this into a father-son fight on the very next day but it did not work. He said, “They thought I will get embroiled in the family brawl. Then they brought up this BRICS charge, that didn’t work either. Had it worked, somebody would not have spoken for over an hour yesterday,” he sarcastically said, referring to the Prime Minister’s laboured defence of his record on economy.
