Shatrughan Sinha, Congress’s candidate from Patna Sahib, Bihar, has landed in trouble with a statement he made about Pakistan’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah, when he said that Jinnah was part of the Congress family, further praising him for his role in India’s independence movement and development.
Sinha was addressing a public rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sausar on Friday when he said that the Congress belonged to great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jinnah, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi.
“These leaders had played the most important role in the development and freedom of the country. This is the reason why I have come here,” he said.
Sinha, who was till recently a member and sitting MP of the BJP from Patna Sahib, had joined the Congress earlier this month and is pitted against Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, on Saturday, declined to comment on the development, saying that he has not heard Sinha’s speech.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain, while addressing the media on Saturday, strongly criticized Sinha for his remark.
Senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram was more vocal. He said, “Whatever his (Shatrughan Sinha’s) views are, he must explain. But a few days ago, he was part of the BJP, so let BJP explain why he was a part of BJP for so many years. I don’t have to explain statement of every member of the Congress. I can only speak for the party’s official position.”
Meanwhile, Sinha issued a clarification.
“Whatever I said yesterday (on Friday) was a slip of tongue. I wanted to say Maulana Azad but uttered Muhammad Ali Jinnah and a few media houses just grabbed on the slip-up and made a big issue out of it. Congress has given the most dynamic leaders and world class prime ministers like Indira Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh who are held in high esteem across the world,” said Sinha.
(With agency inputs)