Yashwant Sinha’s turn to use Mahabharata analogy after PM’s ‘Shalya’ jibe

NEW DELHI: A day after PM Modi referred to Shalya, a character from Mahabharata, to take a dig at inhouse critics of the government’s economic measures, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha said that out of the 100 Kaurava brothers only Duryodhana and Dushasana became famous. Urging the people to “stand up” to save the great tradition of parliamentary democracy, Sinha said that fear and democracy did not go together.

“Mahabharata has been the flavour since yesterday and characters from Mahabharata have suddenly appeared. Some people are talking about Shalya. I don’t know how much they know about Shalya. In Mahabharata, there are two famous characters, Duryodhana and Dushasana. The Kauravas were 100 brothers. Out of them, only two became famous, Duryodhana and Dushasana,” Sinha said, in an apparent dig at Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

BJP later hit back with spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao saying “like the Shishupal in Mahabharata, whose filthy abuses resulted in meeting his end, Yashwant Sinha’s treacherous activities are reaching the (end of) tolerance point.”

“While claiming to be a ‘know-all’ economist, Yashwant Sinha is conveniently glossing over his own disastrous performance as a finance minister when he pledged India’s gold overseas... It remains to be seen what a ‘jobless’ Rahul Gandhi can offer to an ever job seeking Sinha.”