'Crossed all limits': Sushma Swaraj slams Priyanka, Mamata for likening PM Modi to Duryodhana

Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has launched a twin-attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi for likening Prime Minister Narendra Modi to characters from the epic Mahabharat.   

“Today you have talked about ego. Let me remind you that the limit of ego culminated on the day when Rahul ji had insulted Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh  and had ore up and threw out the ordinance issued by the President. Who is telling whom?” Swaraj said in her tweet.

प्रियंका जी - आज आपने अहंकार की बात की. मैं आपको याद दिला दूँ की अहंकार की पराकाष्ठा तो उस दिन हुई थी जिस दिन राहुल जी ने अपने ही प्रधान मंत्री डाक्टर मनमोहन सिंह जी का अपमान करते हुए राष्ट्रपति द्वारा जारी अध्यादेश को फाड़ कर फेंका था. कौन किसको सुना रहा है ?

— Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 7, 2019

In 2013, the then Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had rejected as “complete nonsense” an ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification. His remarks saying that the legislation “should be torn and thrown away” had left the party red-faced.

On Tuesday, hitting back at PM Modi over his recent remark calling her late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi “Bhrashtachari Number 1” (the most corrupt), Priyanka said that the Mahabharata character Duryodhana too had “such arrogance”.

“Duryodhana also had such arrogance. When Lord Krishna went to show him the truth, make him understand, he tried to take him captive,” she said.

She read out a few lines by Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, which said wisdom is the first casualty before someone's downfall: “Jab naash manush par chhata hai, pehle vivek mar jata hai...”

In another tweet, Swaraj took on Banerjee over her remarks that “Narendra Modi should get a tight slap of democracy”, saying that she had crossed all limits.

“You have crossed all limits. You are chief minister of a state and Modi ji is the prime minister of the nation. Tomorrow you have to talk to him,” she said while quoting a couplet by Urdu poet Bashir Badr on enmity and friendship.

ममता जी - आज आपने सारी हदें पार कर दीं. आप प्रदेश की मुख्यमंत्री हैं और मोदी जी देश के प्रधान मंत्री हैं. कल आपको उन्हीं से बात करनी है. इसलिए बशीर बद्र का एक शेर याद दिला रही हूँ :
दुश्मनी जम कर करो लेकिन ये गुंजाइश रहे,
जब कभी हम दोस्त हो जाएँ तो शर्मिंदा न हों.

— Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 7, 2019

Banerjee also compared PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to Duryodhana and Dushasan who had fought against the Pandavas. "The Duryodhana-Dushasan duo is running the show at the Centre," the chief minister said at a rally in Barjora.