Goof up in party mouthpiece Congress Darshan; Nehru role criticized; Questionable remarks about Sonia.
Mumbai : The Congress party could have done with a little more cheer on its 131st birthday but the happy occasion was marred by the sacking of the content editor of the party publication ‘Congress Darshan’. The content editor, Sudhir Joshi, had committed the unpardonable sin of virtually holding the country’s first prime minister and party icon Jawahar Lal Nehru responsible for the Kashmir mess and the China debacle and for not paying heed to his colleague Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s advice on international affairs. The unsigned article also made questionable references to party president Sonia Gandhi.
“Nehru was in charge of foreign affairs and kept Kashmir with him citing it as an international issue. But today’s problems could have been avoided if Nehru had considered Patel’s foresight on the issue,” the article said, giving fodder to the right wing forces and the BJP who have virtually appropriated Patel and glorify him, much to the detriment of Nehru. The article also cites a letter that Sardar Patel reportedly wrote in 1950 to caution Jawaharlal Nehru against China’s policy towards Tibet, in which he described China as “unfaithful, and a future enemy of India.” “Had Nehru listened to Patel then, the problems of Kashmir, China, Tibet and Nepal wouldn’t have existed now,” the article reasons.
On the Goa issue, the author points out how Nehru was upset when Patel declared Indian armed forces could free it (Goa) from Portuguese occupation in just two hours. “Goa would not have had to wait till 1961 for liberation if Patel’s suggestion was accepted then,” says the unattributed article. But what took the cake was the reference to Sonia Gandhi’s father: that he was a member of the “Fascist forces” which lost to the Russians in World War II. Again, though appearing to pay a compliment, the article says Sonia became a primary member of the Congress in 1997 and was elevated as party president in just 62 days, besides discussing her early life in depth, including her desire to become an air hostess.
Ironically, the focus of the latest issue of the magazine was the services rendered by Sonia to the party and her achievements since she took over as Congress president. It also had a colour picture of Sonia on the cover. Hours after Mumbai Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam, a former senior journalist and the editor-in-chief of the publication, apologised for the objectionable remarks, the party sacked the content editor here on Monday. Nirupam also promised to take action against people in the editorial panel who were responsible for the mistakes. “We shall also ensure that such mistakes are not repeated in the future,” he said, before the sacking of Joshi was announced.
The BJP could not hide its glee and welcomed it as Nirupam’s ‘intellectual home-coming (ghar wapasi)’. Latching on to the controversy to take pot-shots at the Congress leadership, union minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Sonia Gandhi should come forward and reveal what is true.” But what possibly took the cake was party spokesperson Tom Vada-kkan’s remark in the evening that Congress had nothing to do with the publication. ‘‘It was a defunct magazine that was trying to revive. That is not our mouthpiece. We have nothing to do with this publication. This magazine has not been associated with the Congress,” Vadakkan told reporters.
