New Delhi: BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde's swipe at Mahatma Gandhi has irked the top party leadership and he may be forced to apologise, party sources said on Monday.
A senior BJP leader said the Karnataka leader's comments were "condemnable" and the party leadership is upset with him.
"The party has conveyed its displeasure to him and asked him to take remedial measure. Any insult to Mahatma Gandhi is unacceptable," he said.
Speaking at a public event, the six-time Lok Sabha member from Uttara Kannada said the entire independence movement was staged with the consent and support of the British.
“None of these so-called leaders were beaten by the police with batons even once. Their independence movement was one big drama. It was staged by these leaders with the approval of the British. It was not a genuine fight. It was an ‘adjustment’ freedom struggle,” he said.
Hegde ridiculed Gandhi’s hunger strikes and satyagraha, also terming them “drama”.
"These Congress people keep saying that we got independence because of the fast unto death or satyagraha. That is not true. The British did not leave India because of satyagraha,” he said.
The MP also said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological mentor, had nothing to do with Gandhi’s assassination.
The Karnataka BJP distanced itself from Hegde’s statements, saying it doesn’t approve of what he has said.
State BJP spokesperson G Madhusudhan said the RSS holds Mahatma Gandhi in high esteem and won’t support such “cheap” remarks.
Former Karnataka minister and Congress MLA Priyank Kharge said Hegde was trying to be in the limelight by making such offensive statements. “He is no longer a minister. He is out of circulation. He is now trying to impress Prime Minister Modi by talking nonsense,” he said.
Comments show BJP's intellectual bankruptcy: Congress
The BJP leader's remarks on the Gandhi-led Independence movement reflected the "intellectual bankruptcy" of the BJP leadership, Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat said on Monday.
Taking objection to the remarks, the Congress has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi come to Parliament and clarify his position.
"BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde's statement is highly condemnable. This shows the intellectual bankruptcy of the BJP leadership. Their parent organisation, the RSS, had collaborated with the British and opposed the freedom struggle," Thorat, who also holds Revenue ministry in the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government, said in a tweet.
He said Hegde's remarks exposed the "true face" of the BJP, "which hails (Mahatma Gandhi's assassin) Nathuram (Godse) as its idol".
(With inputs from PTI)
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