Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday countered Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's poetic jibes at the BJP with his own verses, leaving the Rajya Sabha in splits.
Replying to the motion of thanks debate in the upper house, PM Modi noted that Kharge had been reciting poems, particularly those by the late poet Neeraj, to criticise the ruling party. In response, he quoted lines from the same poet to take aim at the Congress.
"I was observing that Kharge ji has a fondness for reciting poems and you (Chairman) enjoy them greatly. I also read a poem: 'Tamasha karne walo ko kya khabar, humne kitne toofano ko par kar diya jalaya hai'," PM Modi said, amid laughter from NDA MPs.
He was referring to the late poet Gopaldas Saxena, also known as 'Neeraj'.
PM Modi said that Congress is in such a crisis that Kharge was unable to speak his mind in public, adding that the party president had to express his thoughts through Neeraj's poems.
The Prime Minister also recited some lines from Neeraj to Kharge.
"Hai bahut andhyara, ab sooraj nikalna chahiye. Jis tara se bhi ho, ye mausam badalna chahiye" PM Modi said, adding that the poet said these lines for Congress when it was ruling the country in the 1970s.
PM Modi recalled another such poem by Neeraj: "Mere desh udaas na ho, phir deep jalega. Timir dhalega."
The Prime Minister added that later, former PM Atal Bihar Vajpayee said similar likes 40 years ago: "Suraj niklega, andhera chhatega, kamal khilega".
During his speech in Rajya Sabha, PM Modi took a series of potshots at Congress and its "politics of appeasement".
He said that while the grand old party has always put the "family first", BJP has always put the "nation first".
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