BJP and AAP take out ads lauding Lal Bahadur Shastri, India’s second PM. BJP beats Congress to acknowledging Shastri even on social media.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday took the lead in paying homage to former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who shares his birth anniversary with Mahatma Gandhi, even as the Congress sought to re-assert its claims over Gandhi’s legacy at a party working committee meeting in Maharashtra’s Wardha.
The BJP-led NDA government and the AAP government in Delhi took out advertisements in national newspapers, lauding not only Mahatma Gandhi but also Shastri, the country’s second prime minister.
The Congress did not issue any such advertisements and was even caught out in acknowledging one of its own leaders on social media.
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The BJP’s official twitter handle paid tribute to Shastri at 6:57 am. Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed suit at 7:09 am, praising one of his predecessors’ virtues.
The Congress’ official handle acknowledged Shastri’s birth anniversary at 9:15 am but party president only tweeted about the country’s second prime minister at 12.04 pm.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, however, was quick to tweet about the Mahatma, praising the ideals he stood for and exhorted about the need to protect those ideals. But his tweet about Shastri came hours after Modi.
On Tuesday, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, two of India’s largest newspapers, the Times of India and Hindustan Times, carried pieces written by the Prime Minister on the virtues of cleanliness and Gandhi.
Appropriation of Congress icons
The Congress has been accusing other parties, particularly the BJP, of appropriating its icons such as Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Shastri is the fourth Congress leader, after Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Bhimrao Ambedkar, whose legacy, it appears, is being claimed by other parties, especially AAP and BJP.
Both parties, however, do have members who are part of the Shastri clan. The AAP MLA from Dwarka constituency is Adarsh Shastri, the grandson of the late prime minister. For the BJP, its health minister in Uttar Pradesh, Siddharth Nath Singh, is another grandson — he is the son of Shastri’s daughter Suman Singh.
The current BJP dispensation has been celebrating former Congress leaders. Before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi planned the largest statue of Sardar Patel and launched the nationwide campaign seeking iron for it.
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This year, the BJP celebrated Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, which falls on 14 April, as a 22-day event. It also held its latest National Executive in Delhi’s Ambedkar International Centre.
October , 2nd is a special day ; the Gandhi Jayanthi , The Birth Anniversary of Shri . Lal Bahadur Sastri and the Death Anniversary of Thiru. K. Kamaraj , a self less Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu fall on this day . But K.Kamaraj is left out because he is a Tamilian .
its all about preparation of the general election of 2019
Lal bahadur Shastri passed away on 2 nd October is not remembered by many ,when I asked about LB sastry to one of my sub ordinate an officer he said He is remembering Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan.
That is the state,leave alone Rural masses.His contribution to India as a PM is Immence cannot be expressed in few words.
I follow ‘The Print’ for it’s out of the way stories. But this piece to my dismay, was something not ‘The Print’. I am not being pro party but how does it matter if a Congress leader tweeted a bit late?
BJP remembers Shastri ji only for election gimmick. It only loved sardar patel and other Rss big guns.
It is by now an established fact that Congress never ever ACTS. It can only REACT. And, badly. That is the result of toadyism that prevails in Congress. Now it is to Rahul. Even seniors like PC are willing and ready victims to this. That is why even Tharoor has taken to uttering meaningless drivel: to please Rahul; just as Mani Shanker Iyer does all the time. ‘He’ was rewarded by his suspension being lifted, without anyone bing the wiser about why it was imposed in the first place, and what transpired to mitigate the cause. That is also why the party has been going downwards all the time. It will soon reach the bottom.
With millions of gods and goddesses, Indians are no strangers to a large pantheon. However, this is becoming too much of a good thing. Except for the immediate family, who can hold a small memorial service – even better, feed some hungry people or similar social service – the rest of the country can move on. Create a society these great people would be happy to be reborn into.
I am amazed you are even surprised at this apparent mishap! In Congress the only ones that matter are from one family. Shastri, Nanda, Desai, V P Singh or Rao are irrelevant and were it not for Modi championing Sardar Patel they would have happily dispensed with him too! It is a Party owned by one dynasty supported by sundry sycophants and hangers on who clearly have no self respect or self confidence to take on the leadership mantle.