NEW DELHI: After the Congress recently got in trouble, again, for using the 'chaiwala' jibe against Narendra Modi , his own party colleague Shatrughan Sinha yesterday used the epithet to criticise the Prime Minister's "competence".

In fact, the BJP MP and Hindi film star didn't spare two other party colleagues of his, Smriti Irani and Arun Jaitley. The former used to be TV star and is currently HRD and I&B minister. The latter, a lawyer by profession, is the Union finance minister and was, not long ago, also the country's defence minister.

"If 'vakeel babu' (Mr. Lawyer) can speak on finance, if a TV actress can become the country's HRD minister and if a chaiwala can become... I won't even complete that sentence... why can't I speak about the economy," said Sinha in an address at a book launch event in the capital late yesterday.

Just earlier this week, the Congress was in a spot after its youth wing put out a meme to ridicule PM Modi's beginnings as a tea-seller. That evoked strong criticism from the BJP, which called the meme "blatantly classist and anti-poor". Even the Congress distanced itself from the tweet saying a volunteer was responsible for it.

That doesn't seem to have deterred Sinha, who's often referred to as 'Shotgun Sinha', for, well, shooting from the hip. And for a while now, Sinha has been critical of his own party.

Yesterday was no different. He took on "rising intolerance", "the ill-effects of demonetisation" and the issue of his criticising his own party.

In fact, it was while talking about demonetisation that he targeted the PM, Irani and Jaitley.

"Demonetisation has rendered millions jobless, factories have been shut, small traders, hawkers are out of work and GST is like 'neem chadha karela' (bitter gourd is doubly bitter now). If I do not speak for the youth, for the poor and downtrodden, for the oppressed, then what am I doing in politics?" he asked.

Sinha also spoke about the rise in the number of cases of attacks by religious fundamentalists and questioned the government's intolerance to criticism.

"What is happening in this country? Cow vigilantes are killing people, intellectuals, writers, journalists... and now even judges are being killed. 'Aaj dhan shakti jan shakti par bhari hai' (Today, money power is stronger than people's power). And then if people like me come forward, we have attributed motives, we are questioned," he said.

Sinha dismissed speculation that he speaks against his own party because he's annoyed he wasn't made a Cabinet minister.

"Some people say I speak against my own government's policies because I was not made a minister. To be honest I neither have any desire nor any expectations to become a minister. Even those who are ministers today have no standing of their own. They are busy flattering the master to save their skins and seats," said Sinha

Earlier this month, Sinha called the BJP "a one-man show and a two-man army."

"I had not joined the BJP to leave it. But I would not mince words when I say that we cannot meet our challenges if we continue to be a one-man show and a two-man army," he said referring to Modi and BJP president Amit Shah 's hold on the party.



In Video: ‘Shotgun’ fires at his own government, mocks Union Cabinet