Row over Nehru’s exclusion from Karnataka government ad

The statements come after the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government put out front page advertisements in all leading newspapers with pictures of several freedom fighters.

The Congress Karnataka unit on Sunday came down heavily on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over newspaper advertisements on freedom fighters that excluded the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and included right-wing ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

The Karnataka unit of the Congress on Sunday came down heavily on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over newspaper advertisements on freedom fighters that excluded the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and included right-wing ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. (ANI)

“When we thought slavery ended with the British gone, @CMofKarnataka @BSBommai proved everyone wrong by showing that he is still a slave to @RSSorg. Not including #PanditJawaharlalNehru in the list of freedom fighters in today’s govt ad shows how low a CM can go to save his chair,” Siddaramaiah, Congress MLA and the leader of the opposition, said in a post on Twitter.

The statements come after the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government put out front page advertisements in all leading newspapers with pictures of several freedom fighters.

Several others from the Congress called the move as “cheap and petty”.

“Extremely petty of @CMofKarnataka & BJP Govt to have left out Pt Nehru’s photo in list of freedom fighters. He was jailed 9 times & spent 3,259 days in prison. If not for him we would not have had a country with a scientific temper & progressive outlook. Shameful,” Priyank Kharge, Congress legislator and head of communications of the party, wrote on Twitter.

“The advertisement was decided by the highest body and not us. The ad was proposed on August 8 and then finalised on August 13. The CM has to sign off on it,” an official aware of the developments said, requesting anonymity.

KS Eshwarappa, former minister and senior BJP leader, said: “I just saw that DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have expressed their protest for leaving our Nehru’s picture. Even if it is intentional, I welcome it and am happy. A person who broke the nation cannot be a role model to these people. Who are role models? People like Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Dr BR Ambedkar and others are inspirations for the youth. People like Veer Savarkar who was a freedom fighter, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. All these people are an inspiration to the youth and not Nehru.”