Congress leader Manish Tewari, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the book release function in New Delhi on Thursday. (Source: Tashi Tobgyal) Congress leader Manish Tewari, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the book release function in New Delhi on Thursday. (Source: Tashi Tobgyal)

Disgruntled BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal shared the same stage on Thursday from where the Delhi Chief Minister declared that the next general elections would be between Narendra Modi and the rest of the country. The three were at the release of Tewari’s book Tidings of Troubled Times. Sinha, now in the crosshairs of the BJP for criticising the central government’s way of handling the economy, made several witty remarks targeting the government.

Kejriwal, who was once criticised by the Congress, said there was pervasive fear in the country and people cannot compromise on their freedom. “The people are going to fight the 2019 elections. Parties will not fight….The battle is going to between your (pointing to Sinha) leader, your big leader and the people.”

He said “whether the Opposition will come together or not… that is arithmetic” which is also “necessary in electoral politics, but the way I can see the churning that is happening among the people… people can forsake food but cannot compromise with freedom”.

“You cannot imagine the atmosphere of fear that is pervading in the country…. And I not saying this fear is only among Muslims or Christians…. Across the board there is fear among traders, industrialists, stock market…. Everywhere there is fear…. How can the country function like this? The coming election is not going to be Opposition versus BJP…. It is going to be the BJP versus the rest of the country.”

Kejriwal said “it seems the entire country is under surveillance” and there is an unprecedented “raid raj” in the country and traders across the board are living in fear. He applauded Sinha for showing courage and speaking the truth about the slowing economy.

Read | Yashwant Sinha column: I need to speak up now

Tewari said “politics is about probabilities and probabilities are eternal”. He recalled that the first AAP government in Delhi was backed by the Congress and the AAP had backed the Opposition candidate in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.

Sinha said he was aware that the “company in which I have been photographed will send some message…. But I must also say that I don’t really care because… I am past caring”. He responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reference to Shalya, a character in the Mahabharata, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s quip that he was a job applicant at 80.

“Mahabharat has been the flavour… since yesterday,” Sinha said. Characters from Mahabharat have suddenly appeared in our consciousness. Some people are talking about Shalya,” he said. He then explained: “He (Shalya) was the uncle of Nakul and Sahadev, the youngest brothers of the Pandavas…. When he left to take part in the Mahabharat war…. Duryodhan arranged for him to be entertained so well that without realising who was responsible for the entertainment… he promised to be on the side of host Duryodhan. But he promised that ‘I will not pick up arms’ and became a charioteer of Karna.”

Sinha then asked if anyone could name any of the Kauravas, other than Duryodhan and Dushasan. “If I ask you to name the third brother, you and I will not be able to name. So a situation arose, when the 100 brothers constituted the Kaurava clan, only two became infamous… Duryodhan and Dushasan.” The audience broke into an applause and Sinha asked: “Do I need to say anything more?”

About Jaitley’s “job applicant” jab, he said: “I come from a part of the country which produced a famous character Babu Kunwar Singh. He became a major freedom fighter in the first war of Independence in 1857. When he joined that war he was 80 years old. There may a bar in joining government service, but there is no age bar for fighting for freedom.”

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