Rajiv Gandhi never insulted Anjaiah: TPCC

Hyderabad, May 6 : Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Mohammad Ahmed Ali on Tuesday condemned the statement of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi wherein he accused the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of hurting the Telugu sentiments.

Ahmed Ali, in a media statement, said that Naredra Modi has been often quoting an incident involving former Chief Minister T Anjaiah and accusing Rajiv Gandhi of insulting the former. He alleged that Narendra Modi was habitual of distorting history and presenting the wrong facts before the people. He said that Rajiv Gandhi never humiliated Anjaiah. In fact, he had praised Anjaiah on multiple occasions for his simplicity and down-to-earth approach to politics.

With regard to the incident at Hyderabad Airport, Ahmed Ali claimed that Rajiv Gandhi was a bit upset with all the Congress leaders who came to receive him at the airport. Since Rajiv Gandhi was neither holding any official position nor he had any designation in the AICC. Therefore, he disliked the presence of senior Congress leaders including the then Chief Minister at the airport. Further, some Congressmen carried garlands close to the aircraft. With Rajiv Gandhi himself being an experienced pilot, he pulled up the Congress leaders, in general, for violating the security norms.

Ahmed Ali said that it was a routine event and despite being the son of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was not in favour of getting too much attention from the Congress leaders. He wanted his visits to remain simple and without any fanfare.

The TPCC Spokesperson advised Narendra Modi to read a copy from the archives of the newspapers which reported the actual incident. He alleged that Modi has become habitual of sensationalising small events and presenting the same in a way as if he himself was present at the airport to witness Rajiv Gandhi’s behaviour.

Ahmed Ali advised Modi to look back into the recent history of Bharatiya Janata Party wherein several stalwarts including Atal Bihari Vajpee, Lal Krishan Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Jaswanth Singh and others faced repeated humiliation. He said there is not a single BJP leader who retired from politics with honour. They included former Chief Ministers Uma Bharati, YS Yedurappa and Kalyan Singh to name a few, he said.  INN