THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac has sa-id the coinage, “Pap-pu strike”, referring to Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the Deshabhimani editorial, has been a “slip”.
The Election Commission had barred the ruling BJP in Gujarat, in 2017, from using the word 'Pappu' in an electronic advertisement, which apparen-tly targeted the then Congress vice-president Gandhi, calling it "derogatory".
Deshabhimani resident editor P M Manoj admitted that the reference was "inappropriate" and an inadvertent mistake, whi-ch would be looked into. He said in his Facebook post that abusing a politician was not the politics of the daily and the party. "Abusing a politician is not our politics and the reference was unintentional. We will check the mistake and rectify it," he said.
The editorial said Mr Gandhi was eyeing minority votes in Wayanad. If the Con-gress president inte-nds to fight the BJP and the RSS, then he should have chosen some other constit-uency in some other state, it said.
"BJP is yet to open its account from state to Lok Sabha. Here the fight is between the Left and the United Democratic Front. That means he is fighting against the Left in the state. How are they planning to counter the BJP nationally?" the editorial said. Congress leaders rapped the newspaper and the CPM. AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy said the people would give a befitting reply to the LDF. The CPM was following in the BJP's footsteps, he said.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the BJP and the CPM “have similar views on Gandhi's candidature in Wayanad”.
Congress legislator V.T. Balram (Thrith-ala) demanded an apology from Deshab-himani editor-in-chief P Rajeev, the Left candidate in Ernakulam.
...but is still ‘Amul Baby’ for VS
Veteran CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan on Monday lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi accusing him of taking immature decisions without understanding the current political reality in the country.
In a Facebook post, he recalled that earlier he had made fun of Rahul Gandhi calling him “Amul Baby” . “I addressed him that way because of the childish impulsivity with which he reacts on important issues,” he said. He said that Rahul Gandhi may be approaching the middle age but there was no change in his stand on various issues. “Today India is facing the biggest threat from the BJP and people of the country were gearing up to face that challenge. All small and big parties, political fronts, workers and peasants are coming together to throw the BJP government out of power,” he said.
The CPM leader said the Left was leading from the front in this campaign. The Congr-ess is also claiming that it is working for the ouster of BJP from government.
However, the Congress itself adm-its that it is a party where everyone has the freedom to take his respective stand. But this is a strange freedom. All democracy ends before the Nehru family. Rahul Gandhi is the head of the clan today.
Achuthanandan said Rahul Gandhi has been speaking about forming a anti BJP front. But he has been weakening the parties and fronts which are working for that objective. His party is fighting the AAP in Delhi and the LDF in Kerala.
Both AAP and the LDF have been carrying out relentless fight against the BJP. However, Rahul Gandhi seems to be getting trapped in the advise being given by certain sections and without evaluating the ground situation he is acting like a child, Achuthanandan said.
