You know what’s peculiar about Death? What makes it so special? Death never gets blamed for Death. People die due to diseases, they die in accidents or they simply die because they grow old. But, they never die because of death. Same is the case with Congress. Congress is never questioned, Congress is never attacked, and Congress is never blamed. It is the opposition that gets questioned, attacked and blamed.
That’s how PM Modi chose to start his hour-long reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha.
PM Modi pressed the necessity for active collaboration between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, considering the fact that many of the bills passed by the Lok Sabha where NDA has a clear majority, have got stuck in the Upper House. PM Modi thanked Members for ensuring smoothly running houses and explained how even the most overworked parliamentarians seemed upbeat and energetic.
Although PM Modi focused on Effective Governance and Conducive atmosphere in both the houses, he didn’t shy away from taking digs at the opposition. PM Modi wasn’t speaking at high decibel levels and wasn’t smirking at the opposition like he did in the Lok Sabha last week but his wit and sarcasm was top notch again.
PM Modi took on Ghulam Nabi Azad who had brought a record of people who didn’t have accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana by thanking him for analysing his work with a microscope. He went on to say – Had Congress done their work even with binoculars, they would have been able to do a good job.
Watch PM Modi’s epic dig on Ghulam Nabi Azad
PM Modi attacked the Congress for widespread illiteracy in the Nation to which Manishankar Aiyar had some objections. Modi sympathized with Aiyar for what is going to be his last stint in the Parliament and invoked the old super hit AIR programme ‘Bhule Bisre Geet’
PM Modi also passed a sly remark at Ex PM, Manmohan Singh by calling him a very knowledgeable person and himself a less informed person, though he concluded his statement with “BUT I KNOW THINGS”
Taking a cue from his Invoke-Nehru-Rajeev-Indira strategy that he so successfully exhibited in the Lok Sabha last week, PM Modi tried the same in the Rajya Sabha. He invoked Nehru by stating his position on Rajya Sabha which he referred to as a chamber of ideas and there was need for coordination between it and the Lok Sabha because both of them are part of a structure. He went on to Invoke Indira Gandhi, by stating her quote “There are two kinds of people in the world – one who work and the other who claim credit for it… Try to belong to the first category because there is little competition in it.”
PM Modi even recited Nida Fazli’s poem:
Safar mein dhoop to hogi jo chal sako to chalo,
Sabhi hain bheed mein, tum bhi nikal sako to chalo,
Kisi ke vaaste raahein kahaan badalti hain,
Tum apne aap ko khud hi badal sako to chalo,
Yahaan kisi ko koi raasta nahin deta,
Mujhe giraake, agar tum sambhal sako to chalo