New Delhi: In a session marked by rare parliamentary wit, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has delivered a stinging rebuttal to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s light-hearted “marriage” jibe.
Responding to Kharge’s comment that the JD(S) patriarch “loved” the Congress but “married” PM Modi, Gowda clarified that his association with the grand old party was a “forced marriage” that eventually ended in a necessary “divorce.”
The exchange began during a farewell for retiring Rajya Sabha MPs, where Kharge, recalling his 54-year-long friendship with Gowda, quipped: “Wo mohabbat humare saath kiye, shaadi Modi sahab ke saath” (He loved us, but married Modi).
The remark left the entire House, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in splits.
However, taking to X (formerly Twitter) later that evening, the JD(S) National President offered a “factual and light-hearted” clarification. “If I were to respond to my friend in the same language of marriage, I would like to say that I was in a ‘forced marriage’ with the Congress but had to ‘divorce’ them because it was an abusive relationship,” Gowda wrote.
Gowda further detailed the 2018 alliance in Karnataka, claiming he had initially proposed Kharge’s name for Chief Minister, but was overruled by Congress leadership in favour of HD Kumaraswamy. He alleged that the Congress subsequently “dumped” his party and instigated defections. “I did not desert the alliance; it is they who walked away. They left me with no choice but to seek a more stable alliance,” the veteran leader added.
The witty back-and-forth highlighted the shifting sands of Karnataka politics while providing a moment of levity in the Upper House, proving that even in high-stakes diplomacy, there is always room for a sharp matrimonial metaphor.