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Narendra Modi is 'father of New India', Gandhi is...': Amruta Fadnavis
Today's remark was slammed by Congress leader Yashomati Thakur, who said that 'people following the BJP and RSS ideology... trying to kill Gandhiji again and again'.
Amruta Fadnavis - the wife of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis - on Wednesday called prime minister Narendra Modi 'the father of new India' after she was questioned over a 2019 tweet in which she called him 'the father of our country.
"We have two 'rashtra pita'... Narendra Modi is the father of New India and Mahatma Gandhi is the father of the nation of earlier times," she was quoted by a Marathi news website.
In 2019, on Modi's birthday, she said: "... wishing the father of our country, Narendra Modi ji, a very happy birthday - who inspires us to work relentlessly to betterment of the society."
Also Read | Congress leader's controversial remark on PM Modi triggers major backlash
Today's remark was slammed by Congress leader Yashomati Thakur, who said that 'people following the BJP and RSS ideology... trying to kill Gandhiji again and again'.
"They keep doing such things as they are obsessed with changing history by repeating lies and maligning great people like Gandhiji," Thakur said.
The row over Amruta Fadnavis' remark comes as the BJP and the Shiv Sena faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde clash with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi over controversial comments about Chhatrapati Shivaji by governor BS Koshyari.
Meanwhile, in response to a different query at the same event (in Nagpur), Amruta Fadnavis said, "I never make political statements. I'm not even interested... common people don't troll me over my statements. Those are supporters of the NCP or Shiv Sena. I do not give much importance to them and am not afraid of them. I fear only my mother and mother-in-law. "
"I cannot devote all my time to politics. So I don't want to join politics now. However, those who work 24 hours, who give 24 hours to politics, should be made chief minister," she said.
Fadnavis' husband, the deputy chief minister, was chief minister of Maharashtra till the BJP was defeated in the last Assembly election. He made his comeback after the party supported the Shinde-led Sena faction in its rebellion against former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Fadnavis was widely expected to become chief minister again after Thackeray resigned, but the BJP opted to allow Shinde the top post and persuaded their leader to take the No 2 job.
