Shashi Tharoor’s ‘The Great Indian Novel’, Mahabharat metaphors fuel fiery budget debate in Parliament

NEW DELHI: Congress’ Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi’s Tharoor’s popular satirical fiction “The Great Indian Novel” published in 1989, made its way to the centre stage in Lok Sabha, 35 years later, on Tuesday, as the ruling BJP and opposition Congress sparred, hurling metaphors from Mahabharat at each other, during a heated debate on the Union Budget.
If the great Indian epic, “Mahabharat” was refreshed in the House on Monday, as Congress MP and leader of the House Rahul Gandhi used it to formulate his attack on BJP while delivering his take on the Budget, it was BJP’s Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, who mounted his counter attack on Gandhi, on Tuesday, with the help of “The Great Indian Novel” – a fictional work that takes the story of the Mahabharat and recasts and resets it in the context of the Indian Independence movement and the first three decades of the post-Independence political canvas.
Thakur quoting extensively from the Novel, livened up the debate in Lok Sabha making it an interesting setting, with the BJP MP using the characters in the novel to take on Gandhi’s forefathers to hit out at the Congress party and its leadership while Rahul Gandhi heard him out sitting across the aisle. Then midway through Thakur’s speech, Tharoor walked in and heard him out, also raising his hand to tell the Speaker that he would want to respond to it once Thakur got over.
Taking his turn Tharoor, in a brief repartee profusely thanked Thakur for “the quoting extensively from his satirical work and reviving it 35 years later” with the remark, “the gentleman who quoted from his book extensively had missed the satire in it.” Pointing out that he has written several books since, Tharoor said, they were not being quoted by Thakur because it is inconvenient for the narrative that the BJP MP wanted to convey.
Wrapping up his response, Tharoor reminded Thakur that “there are many, many people on that side of the fence (meaning BJP) who have said things far more recently against their own party which he should remember can be quoted back at them (treasury benches).