APCC demands Shah to tender apology

BANIA SLUR ON MAHATMA GANDHI

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 11: The Congress and other Opposition parties have sought an apology from BJP’s tiol president Amit Shah for, what they say, terming Mahatma Gandhi a ‘bahut chatur bania’at a public rally at Raipur on Friday last.

The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) staged a sit-in in front of Rajiv Bhawan in the city today in protest against the statement insulting Gandhiji. There was also a protest meeting at the site.

Senior APCC spokesperson Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya said: “The statement on Gandhiji made by Shah reflects the mental make-up of the ruling party.”

Others who spoke at the rally also condemned the statement from Shah on a leadership who had made independence of India possible. They said that the BJP chief did not even have the least knowledge on Gandhi and his deeds. Gandhiji boycotted foreign goods. He was able to spin yarn and weave his own attire himself. He used to wear a single cloth so as to align himself with the crores of poverty-stricken Indians. Terming such a leader ‘bohut chatur bania’ goes against the culture, civilization and taste of this land, the leaders of the Congress said.

They asked if Prime Minister rendra Modi was not doing business by slapping crores of tax on the people of the country through the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan based on Gandhiji’s ideology of doing away with untouchability in society and cleanliness. “Isn’t the statement made by Shah against Gandhiji self-contradictory?” one of the speakers said, and added: “At a time when the world over opted to Ganghiji’s policy of non-violence – Nelson Mandela for independence of South Africa and former US president Barak Obama on policy matters – hasn’t the chief of the ruling party insulted all those who sacrificed for the independence of India by making such a statement? With such a statement Shah made India hang its head in shame before the world. He should tender an abject apology before the people of the country.”

Congress leaders who spoke at the protest rally were APCC general secretaries Raju Prasad Sarma and Brajen Kumar Handique, secretaries Prafulla Kumar Das and Arun Tiwari, spokesperson Abhijit Mazumdar and others.