Congress counter-attacks Modi over Sardar legacy

Ajay Maken accuses Modi of stifling media, advises him to live by Sardar Vallabhai Patel's ideals if he truly believed in him

As BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was busy targeting the Congress led UPA in Gujarat while he laid the foundation for a gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, (the ‘Ironmanof India)’, the Congress at the same time launched its counterattack against Modi in the capital.

Congress Communication department head Ajay Maken accused Modi of stifling the media and all forms of speech and expression and advised Modi to live by Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s ideals if he truly believed in him. Lately both the BJP and the Congress are engaged in a bitter war of words over Sardar Patel’s legacy.

Maken said he was addressing the media to primarily highlight that the RSS had been threatening a senior woman journalist of The Hindu who had written an article drawing attention to how the RSS had reneged on its promise to Sardar Vallabhai Patel not to be a political organization.

Releasing the letter that Maken as Congress General Secretary had written to Home Minister Shinde, taking note of the “seriousness” of the journalists complaint. He had urged the Home Minister to get the matter probed promptly. Maken said this was an example of how the right wing organisations and Modi stifled press freedom.

“Whether it is the Information Commission in Gujarat which is understaffed or has huge pendency or the fact that no CAG report has been tabled there or human rights commissions have no existence there, Gujarat under Modi has quashed free speech,” said Maken.

Conjuring up the dangers of “such a man as Modi as future Prime Minister god forbid,” Maken said, ‘In the words of the Mahatma (Gandhi) I can only pray that God endow him with better sense.”