BJP slams Cong, will mark Bhagat Singh’s death anniv with 3-day event

BJP announced a programme to commemorate Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom and attacked Congress over Shashi Tharoor’s remarks comparing JNU’s Kanhaiya Kumar with the freedom fighter.

The Bhartiya Janata Party, on Tuesday, announced a three-day programme to commemorate Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom and attacked Congress over Shashi Tharoor’s remarks comparing JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar with the freedom fighter.

Prakash Javadekar said Congress may have distanced itself from Shashi Tharoor’s comments but it was not adequate as the MP had not expressed regret. (Bhushan Koyande/HT File Photo)

Seeking an apology from Congress and Tharoor, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the opposition party may have distanced itself from its MP’s comments but it was not adequate as he had not expressed regret.

“What is Congress doing? For 12 years, it opposed Modi. For two years, it opposed development (under Modi), then it gave respectability to anti-India slogans raised in JNU and now insulting martyrs has become the identity of Congress under Rahul Gandhi,” Javadekar told the media.

He alleged that Congress chose to insult martyrs two days before their martyrdom day, a reference to hanging of Rajguru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh on March 23, 1931, by the British.

Tharoor made the comments with an eye on Kerala assembly polls, Javadekar alleged.

There is “anger” among people across the country over the episode and BJP will express it through the exercise, he said.

Referring to reports that Kanhaiya’s posters have been used by some Congress leaders in Assam polls, he said it showed that the opposition party had no role model left and was depending on “borrowed pictures”.

“Their role models have failed. It is political bankruptcy of Congress.”

There could be no comparison between the JNU leader and Singh as the former is accused of glorifying Afzal Guru, who was convicted of helping foreign terrorists in attacking Parliament, while the latter chose gallows in his fight against foreign invaders, he said.