Upset with Congress MPs not attending an official function in Parliament to commemorate the birth anniversary of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, senior BJP leader lK Advani on Sunday lamented the new generation (of the ruling party) was departing even from the tradition of their own elders.
lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari and Congress MPs were conspicuous by their absence at the function held at Parliament on Saturday.
“It is a firmly established convention in Parliament since 1947 that on the birth anniversary of the leaders whose portraits have been put up in the Central Hall of Parliament House, all MPs are invited to the Central Hall to offer floral homage to that leader,” Advani wrote in his blog, released on Sunday.
Advani said it struck to him as odd that no Congress MP or Minister turned up for the event. “I would like to mention at this point that it was the Marxist Government led by Jyoti Basu which had decided to put up an excellent statue of Dr Syama Prasad at the Maidan in Kolkatta. I requested late R Venkataraman who was Vice-President at that time to unveil the Statue. He readily agreed, and graced the function,” Advani wrote.
He further wrote, “I have recalled all this only to remind the Congress leadership today, that the country may be inclined to conclude that at least in so far as the Congress party is concerned, the new generation is departing even from the tradition of their own elders!”
The BJP veteran also pointed out that in the case of Vir Savarkar, whose portrait was unveiled in the Central Hall some years back by the then President Dr Abdul Kalam, the Congress formally decided to boycott the function and stayed away from the ceremony on all his subsequent birthdays. “The absence of Congressmen (on Saturday) is unlikely to be a deliberate decision. Unwittingly, though it may be, it does reflect innate partisan thinking,” Advani wrote in his blog.