Soon after President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, which will now be known as ‘Narendra Modi stadium’, the Congress hit out at the BJP with its former chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday again invoking his ‘Hum do humare do’ jibe, claiming that truth was out with the stadium having the Prime Minister’s name, two ends being named after corporate houses and Home Minister Amit Shah’s son being involved in cricket administration. But the Government said the name change involves only the Motera stadium and the entire sports complex continues to be named after Sardar Patel.
“Beautiful how the truth reveals itself. Narendra Modi stadium — Adani end — Reliance end. With Jay Shah presiding,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted, with the hashtag ‘HumDoHumareDo’.
In a veiled reference to the RSS, former Union Minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in a tweet, “Maybe they just realised the stadium was named for a Home Minister who had banned their parent organization. Or maybe this is advance booking to ensure the next visiting Head of State is hosted here, like Trump? Or is this the beginning of a legacy-creation-through-labelling spree?” Tharoor went on to say.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said those who achieve big things, the world remembers them by naming heritage sites after them but those who bounce ‘jumlas’, how do they name structures after themselves even when they are alive.
Defending the government’s move, Union Minister Prakash Javedkar issued a clarification saying, “Only the name of the stadium has been changed but the entire c PNS n New Delhi
With its former chief Rahul Gandhi coming under attack of the BJP over his comments in Kerala, the Congress on Wednesday sought to defend him saying the Wayanad MP had given a clarion call to the people to question the Government on real issues and the North-South divide was a “toolkit” being sold by the BJP to the public.
However, while former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said he was nobody to comment on what Rahul Gandhi has but still maintained “we must respect electors in the country and not denigrate their wisdom”, another former Minister Anand Sharma said only Rahul can clarify so that there’s no conjecture or misunderstanding.
The Congress alleged that the BJP was raising “superficial” issues on a daily basis to divert the country’s attention from the people’s issues. Several BJP leaders and union ministers accused Rahul Gandhi of being an ‘opportunist’ and alleged that he belittled north Indians during the speech delivered in Kerala.
Addressing a public gathering in Thiruvananthapuram, Rahul had said, “For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues.”
Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala clarified that the former Congress president has given a clarion call to the people to question the government of the day, whether in the states or at the Centre, on issues paramount to people and to “ignore the superficial toolkit story being sold by the BJP day in and day out”.
“The North-South divide is a toolkit being adopted and sold by the BJP to the news channels and the public. Let us all rise and ensure that the governments of the day answer on issues and not on superficiality that they want to divert our attention to,” Surjewala said at AICC Press conference.omplex will still be known as Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium.”
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad responded to the criticism saying, “Sonia Gandhi and others never visited Kevedia to pay respect to Sardar Patel statue there. They never visited that site and now they are talking about insulting Sardar Patel.”