Manpreet likens PM to ‘eagle raised by vultures’
Monday, 27/02/2017
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/politics/manpreet-likens-pm-to-eagle-raised-by-vultures/369977.html
New Delhi : In his maiden briefing for the Congress today, former Punjab minister Manpreet Singh Badal borrowed a loaded Allama Iqbal couplet to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and likened him to an “eagle raised by vultures and hence unaccustomed in the traditions of baadshaahi.
“Voh fareb kurda shahi jo pala ho kirgison mein, use kya khabar kya hote hain riwaaz baadshah ke,” Manpreet said quoting Iqbal, who used the “eagle trained by vultures” metaphor to describe an emperor unfit to be one.
“An eagle would prefer to die than feed on rotten meat. Likewise a leader will refrain from making divisive, communal remarks,” Manpreet said, hitting out at PM Narendra Modi who recently referred to graveyards and cremation grounds while on UP campaign trail.
Banking on history and literature to hammer his point of BJP’s polarisation, Manpreet further quoted Sam Waterston, who headed the ethics committee during the Watergate Scandal investigations to say that the PM had not shown signs of a mature leader.
“Waterston had said that small men when elevated to high positions have a choice to make. They can either elevate themselves to suit the office they command or pull down the office they command to suit themselves. PM Modi is pulling down the office of the Prime Minister with his communal discourse, where he should be focusing on real issues of governance,” Manpreet said, advising PM to read Munshi Premchand’s “Panch Parmeshwar” and use its spirit to run the country.
He said he feared that the BJP would push the country back into the Partition day darkness. He lamented that when the leadership of Japan, China, and Iran was running rings around the American diplomacy, the Indian PM was trapped in the rhetoric of Ramzaan and Diwali and kabristan and shamshaan.
He also said the March 11 verdict in five state elections would be a referendum on PM’s demonetisation.
