Democracy and Dar (Fear) cannot go together: Yashwant Sinha

New Delhi: In clear declaration of rebellion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today said if he was thrown out of the party, it would be ‘’the best day’’ of his life, and called upon party colleagues to shed fear and speak up. ‘’Let us stand up and face it with courage,’’ the rebel BJP leader said in his remarks at a function of the release of a book ‘Tidings of Troubled Times’ written by senior Congress leader Manish Tiwari at which he shared the dias also with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Sinha, a former finance minister, said what he was saying was the truth and many of his party colleagues agreed with him but they could not speak out of fear. ‘’I am past caring,’’ Mr Sinha remarked when journalist Burkha Datt, who conducted a discussion on the book after its release, asked as to whether he was not worried that his party might take action against him. ‘’Democracy and Dar (fear) cannot go together,’’ he said.

During his speech, Mr Sinha took frequent pot shots at the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley both of whom had launched a scathing attack on him ever since he wrote an article criticising the economic policies of the Modi government. However, today his main offensive was mainly directed at Mr Modi who had yesterday compared the likes of him with a Mahabharat character Shalya, who ran Karna’s chariot discouraging him constantly.

Returning the Prime Minister’s jibe, Mr Sinha today said,’’In addition to Shalya, there were two more characters who became infamous in Mahabharata—Duryodhan and Dushshasan—you know who they are.’’ He also said had his criticism of economic policy would have been without any justification, ‘’one would not have spoken for over hour over it yesterday,’’ which was an obvious reference to the Prime Minister’s speech at Institute of Company Secretaries golden jubilee function last evening. Mr Sinha also hit out at Mr Jaitley’s ‘’a job applicant at 80‘’ jibe at him, saying that there was an age bar on applying for a government job but no age bar on fighting for freedom. (UNI)