‘You may have everything, but we have Manmohan Singh’

Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday recalled a powerful one-line dialogue of popular Hindi film Deewar to stress how the Manmohan Singh government was doing everything in its power to rein in prices.

Injecting a dash of humour during a discussion on price rise in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Khurshid said: “There is a famous old [film] dialogue that you may have everything, par mere paas Ma hai [but I have my mother on my side]. That's what we are saying...you may have everything, but we have Dr. Manmohan Singh.”

Cheered by his party colleagues, Mr. Khurshid made this remark while referring to measures being taken by the UPA government to reduce inflationary pressures in the next two months. Dr. Singh was present in the House.

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who initiated the discussion, later said: “I was completely surprised by this particular...I think it was childish.”

Mr. Khurshid on his part said Dr. Singh was the kind of leader that the world would look up to.

Reacting to Mr. Sinha's comments, Mr. Khurshid said: “I think it's churlish to say that it was childish. But we have had a debate in the highest of traditions and we should not wreck it now by making comments of this nature.”

Mere paas Ma hai, was Shashi Kapoor's response to Amitabh Bachchhan's poser in the blockbuster hit of the seventies: Mere paas gadi hai banglaw hai bank balance hai Tumhare paas kya hai? Veteran actress Nirupa Roy essayed the role of mother to Amitabh and Shashi, who are brothers in the film.