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Fact Sheet: A Meritless Comparison

Fact Sheet: A Meritless Comparison

The culture of sycophancy is rampant in the Congress whose leaders lose no opportunity to even fall at the feet of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul for their aggrandizement. The High Command too encourages this sort of behaviour.

The BJP was bereft of this culture or at least until now. It had leaders like Vajpayee and Advani in the past who were widely respected but never did the saffron party resort to making an idol out of its party leaders.

But to be fair to Vajpayee, he was arguably the finest Prime Minister India ever had just in terms of public acceptance. Nevertheless, sycophancy fast seems to be getting the better of the BJP as well.

Earlier Venkayya Naidu stunned one and all when he said Modi was God’s gift to India. And now, Amit Shah and Shivraj Singh Chouhan have apparently decided to join the bandwagon as well.

Amit Shah likened PM Narendra Modi's appeal to well-to-do people to give up LPG subsidy to former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's call of giving up one meal to deal with food shortage. This came even as Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan compared the PM to Mahatma Gandhi, saying like the world keenly listened to the Father of the Nation, it now listens to Modi.

“If we look back, perhaps Lal Bahadur Shastri's appeal to countrymen to give up one meal of dal-rice received such an overwhelming response. On PM Modi's appeal, one crore people have given up LPG subsidy,” said Amit Shah.

Chouhan too lavished praises on Modi. “First, the world would keenly listen to everything Mahatma Gandhi said. Today, the world listens to Modiji,” he said. Both comparisons are downright outrageous.

Lal Bahadur Shastri never became the PM by saying he was a Brahmin unlike Modi who played the BC card well. Lal Bahadur Shastri never went back on a promise unlike Modi who conveniently forgot special status for AP after getting a majority. And Shastriji was such an honest person that he took moral responsibility for a train accident and resigned as the Railway Minister unlike Modi who clung on to his CM’s chair despite Vajpayee hinting that he should resign, following the Godhra riots.

And as for Shivraj Singh Chouhan comparing Modi to Gandhiji, what can one say? The gentleman had better remember that the world looked to Gandhiji as a fine human being and an advocate of Satyagraha, that timeless concept that has gone on to influence and change the lives of millions of people across the globe including the likes of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.

The world may be listening to Narendra Modi but only in the latter’s capacity as the Prime Minister of India. And one more thing! There was never any controversy about Lal Bahadur Shastri or Gandhiji regarding their marriage or their academic qualifications. Their lives were an open book.

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