The Hindu : National : SAHMAT condemns surrogate ad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

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National

SAHMAT condemns surrogate ad

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 10. SAHMAT, a non-governmental organisation working for communal harmony, has described as an "insult to the patriotic sense of Indians" the latest surrogate advertisement that came out in the newspapers and was aired on television channels on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The advertisement, while appealing to people to vote for the BJP, said that Mangal Pandey had raised the banner of revolt against the British on May 10, 1857 and "fired the first shot against the foreigners.''

Now the voters will have to think whether they would like to "hand the country over to a foreigner.'' The appeal to the voters was: "Don't insult the sacrifices made by lakhs of our martyrs and honour the sacred day of May 10.''

Pointing out that the advertisement was issued in utter violation of the Election Commission of India's clear-cut directive against surrogate ads, a SAHMAT release today said this was an indication of how much the BJP and its hangers-on cared for the sanctity of the constitutional bodies. The insinuation against the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, could not be clearer, it said.

Then, there also remains the question whether the BJP and its cohorts have ever deemed it necessary to remember the sacred day of May 10. It is clear that it was their compulsion that made them remember this sacred day this year only, the release said. "Apart from the poor taste in which the said ad referred to Ms. Gandhi, it also involves a more weighty consideration and it is that the RSS-BJP brand of history has never been truthful to the facts of history,'' the release said.

The fact is that Mangal Pandey raised the banner of revolt against the British not on May 10, 1857 but in February that year at Barrackpore in Bengal, and it were the sepoys of Meerut who raised the banner of revolt on May 10, 1857, came to Delhi the next day, and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar the emperor of India, the release pointed out. "The Sangh Parivar has gravely insulted the sacred memory of these sepoys, peasants and their leaders by trying to make electoral capital in their name. The fact is that in its mad drive to garner votes, the Sangh Parivar did not even think it necessary to put the facts right."

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