From Mahabharata to Milton: MPs quote scriptures, couplets to make a point | Political Pulse News
When Arjun was hesitant to kill his family members, Krishna told him that “you are not killing your friends but evil… the same thing I am doing”, DMK leader T R Baalu quoted from the Bhagavad Gita in Lok Sabha on Tuesday while supporting the no-confidence motion against the government.
Baalu said he is supporting the motion because “we want to kill evil”, even though “Prime Minister Narendra Modi happens to be a friend”.
“There was no other way than to bring a no-confidence motion to get the presence of the Prime Minister in the House,” he said, adding that he realises it would be “unethical” to bring such a motion at the end of the Lok Sabha’s term.
He was responding to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who also cited the epic Mahabharata to make a point that like disrobing Draupadi brought down the Kauravas, the same way, “the cheerharan of Prime Minister Modi’s policies” will lead to the downfall of the Opposition.
“Today, if you disrobe the PM, then just like Dhritrashtra and Bhishma were not spared, neither (the Pandava brothers) Yudhishthir or Arjun were spared, none of the Opposition leaders will be spared by the people. No one will come back (to Parliament) in 2024 with 400 seats,” said Dubey.
The Mahabharata was not only the epic to be quoted in the House on Tuesday. Baalu also quoted 6th-century Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar’s epic work Tirukkural, considered one of the greatest works on ethics and morality, to attack PM Modi. “He who defies righteous order, oversteps limits and enjoys self-aggrandisement, is lost first,” Baalu quoted from the text.
Accusing the NDA government of “bias” against the minorities in Manipur and elsewhere in the country, Baalu quoted Vivekananda by his original name – Narendranath Datta – and said, “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught me both tolerance and universal acceptance.”
NCP leader Supriya Sule quoted Mahatma Gandhi, Julius Caesar and 17th-century English poet John Milton while talking about the “hubris” brought about by the NDA regime. “It is unwise to be too sure of one’s wisdom,” she said, quoting Gandhi. She equated the NDA government with Roman statesman Julius Caesar saying, “it’s only hubris if I lose”, while supporting the no-confidence motion.
Most Read
Towards the end of her speech, she quoted from Paradise Lost, where Milton uses hubris as the factor which leads to the fall of Satan: “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde went on to recite the Hanuman Chalisa in the House during his 20-minute interjection. “In Maharashtra, even the recitation of the Hanuman Chalisa was stopped,” he said, referring to regime of former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
When an Opposition MP asked if Shinde even knew the Hanuman Chalisa, he started reciting some couplets. He also attacked at the Uddhav Thackeray faction for “abandoning” Hindutva and Bal Thackeray’s ideology.