Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has often targeted Jyotiraditya Scindia, his former party colleague who jumped over to the BJP last year, did not let go of a chance to take potshots at him in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The banter that came in the middle of a discussion on farmers’ protests started with Chairman Venkaiah Naidu calling out Singh’s name right after Scindia had spoken. This set the members tittering. Naidu immediately clarified, amid guffaws, that he had nothing to do with the sequence of the speakers.

In keeping with the mood, Digvijaya Singh started by paying a left-handed compliment to Scindia, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, also Singh’s home state.

“Scindia-ji I congratulate you. You have put forth the BJP view today as adeptly as you used to present the UPA’s point of view earlier. Wah Maharaj-ji wah!” Singh said.

Scindia retorted: “It is all your blessings.” To which, Singh said with a wide smile: “My blessings were always with you and will remain with you”.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, speaking in Parliament for the first time since his shift from the Congress, targeted his former party for what he called the double standards on the farm laws.

“In the 2019 election manifesto, the Congress had promised reforms for farmers. In 2010-11, our agriculture minister Sharad Pawar wrote to all chief Ministers and said that private sector participation was necessary in agriculture and for that, amendments were needed in the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Act enacted by state governments,” Scindia said.

“We have to change this habit of changing our word. We can’t have it both ways – how long can this go on?” he added.

Scindia, in March 2020, quit Congress and joined the BJP with 22 MLAs, leading to the collapse of the then Congress government led by Kamal Nath. He was reportedly unhappy over being allegedly sidelined in the party.