Congress in Kerala has expressed strong resentment against an article carried by RSS journal 'Kesari' allegedly running down India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
On getting a complaint seeking action from KPCC general secretary Sooranad Rajasekharan, state home minister Ramesh Chennithala has asked DGP KS Balasubraniam to examine the issue and take action, if necessary.
The article by BJP state committee member B Gopalakrishnan said "actually Nehru was responsible for the partition of the country and other tragedies including Gandhi's assassination."
The write-up also said Nehru was a "selfish" leader who concealed important facts from Gandhi on the partition and eventually kept him away from the final round of discussions.
The article even reportedly said that Naturam Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi chose the wrong target, in an implied reference to Nehru.
The editor of the weekly, however, stood by the article and stoutly refuted Congress' allegations.
Taking strong exception to the article, KPCC president V M Sudheeran said this was yet another attempt of the sangh parivar to distort history and denigrate Nehru.
Reacting to the charges, editor of Kesari N R Madhu said this was a sheer distortion of facts by the Congress leaders with political motives.
"This is not for the first time we are criticising Nehru's policies and approaches to vital issues including the partition. But nowhere the article has even remotely suggested that Nehru should have been physically targeted," Madhu told PTI.
{{/usCountry}}"This is not for the first time we are criticising Nehru's policies and approaches to vital issues including the partition. But nowhere the article has even remotely suggested that Nehru should have been physically targeted," Madhu told PTI.
{{/usCountry}}He said this was a ploy by the Congress leaders to show that they were more vehement in opposing the RSS and the BJP than the CPI-M.
"The CPI-M has been accusing the Congress of being soft towards the RSS after the Oommen Chandy government decided to go in for a CBI inquiry into the murder of the Sangh activist Elamthottathil Manoj at Kathirur in Kannur district.
Now, the Congress wants to blunt this criticism by seizing and distorting facts," Madhu claimed.