The ruling Congress party in Madhya Pradesh was left red-faced after invitation cards meant for Madhya Pradesh foundation day programme in a district on Friday carried a photo of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and forerunner of the BJP.
Once district authorities in Hoshangabad discovered the faux pas and replaced the cards with fresh ones, the government came under fire from the opposition BJP for its “parochial mindset”.
The state level programme for the foundation day was held at Lal Parade ground at Bhopal while all district headquarters hosted their own programmes.
According to an official, the cards were printed in Hoshangabad district by the district administration and distributed on Thursday. When the ‘mistake’ came to the notice of the district collector Sheelendra Singh new cards were printed. The cards which were already distributed were withdrawn from many people and were replaced with the new cards which did not have any photo on it.
The district collector could not be reached for his comments. However, additional district magistrate (ADM) KD Tripathi said 200 cards were printed but were not distributed.
The Congress sought to play down the incident with minister for public relations PC Sharma saying in Hoshangabad the administration was looking into it.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress sought to play down the incident with minister for public relations PC Sharma saying in Hoshangabad the administration was looking into it.
{{/usCountry}}But the decision to replace the cards drew fire from the BJP.
State BJP vice-president Rameshwar Sharma said, “It was fascism treating the great personalities of the country on political lines and the action showed parochial mindset of the Congress government. What was the problem if Pt Deendayal Upadhyay’s photo was printed on the invitation cards? Was he not his son of the soil?”