Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Mohammad Ahmed Ali on Tuesday condemned the statement of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi wherein he accused former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of hurting the Telugus' sentiments.
Ahmed Ali, in a media statement, said that Modi has been often quoting an incident involving former Chief Minister T Anjaiah and accusing Rajiv Gandhi of insulting the former.
He alleged that Narendra Modi habitually distorted history and presented wrong facts to the people.
He said that Rajiv Gandhi never humiliated Anjaiah. In fact, Ali said, Gandhi had praised Anjaiah on multiple occasions for his simplicity and down-to-earth approach to politics.
With regard to the incident at the Hyderabad Airport, Ali claimed that Rajiv Gandhi was a bit upset with all the Congress leaders who came to receive him at the airport. Since Gandhi was neither holding any official position nor had any designation in the AICC at that time, he disliked the presence of senior Congress leaders including the then Chief Minister at the airport.
Further, some Congressmen carried garlands close to the aircraft. Gandhi himself being an experienced pilot, he pulled up the Congress leaders in general for violating the security norms.
Ahmed Ali said that it was a routine event, and despite being the son of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was not in favour of getting too much attention from the Congress leaders. He wanted his visits to remain simple and without any fanfare.
The TPCC Spokesperson advised Narendra Modi to read a copy from the archives of the newspapers which reported the actual incident.
He alleged that Modi had made it a habit of sensationalising small events and presenting them as if he himself was present at the place.
Ali advised Modi to look back into the recent history of the Bharatiya Janata Party wherein several stalwarts including Atal Bihari Vajpee, Lal Krishan Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Jaswanth Singh and others faced repeated humiliation.
He said that there was not a single BJP leader who retired from politics with honour. They included former Chief Ministers Uma Bharati, Y S Yedurappa and Kalyan Singh to name a few, he said. (INN)