Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 14, 2004
The fine print on an advertisement
issued in the Gujarati media on Tuesday by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress
Committee (GPCC), announcing its president Sonia Gandhi's election tour,
raised several eyebrows, especially in the 'sangh parivar.' Below the Congress
palm symbol, was a line in Sanskrit - param vaibhavam, netumetat swarashtram
(I shall strive to take my country to its highest glory).
Nothing unsusual about that. Except
that it is a line picked from the regular prayer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) - namaste, sada vatsale, matrubhoomi! While the line has several
Congressmen red in the face, the masterminds behind it are smiling. A strategy
planned by the Congress to retort to the BJP's "snatching away" of their
icons like Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel, these thinktanks say.
It seems Congress seeks to "remind"
voters of what the party has contributed to the country in all these years.
Gujarat PCC's campaign committee
convenor, a former RSS pracharak, chose to skirt the issue, saying, "I
have not seen the advertisement."
