Thiruvananthapuram: A day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy from Wayanad was confirmed, ‘Deshabhimani’, the Malayalam mouthpiece of the ruling CPI(M), put up an editorial in which he was addressed as ‘Pappu’, an oft-repeated mock-name of the Gandhi scion.
The editorial, titled ‘This Pappu Strike Will Complete the Collapse of Congress’, said Gandhi’s decision to contest from Kerala happened to be out of ‘fear of failure’ in his traditional stronghold, Amethi.
It said a dip of two lakh votes in the 2014 general election could be a possible cause for a defeat in 2019. Also, the Congress lost all the five assembly constituencies in Amethi for the 2017 elections, the editorial said.
It also mocked at Gandhi for repeating a trend set by his grandmother and mother — contesting from two Lok Sabha seats.
Soon after, the Congress said the article reflected the CPI(M)’s mindset which was to blindly oppose the grand old party.
“The ‘Desabahimani’ article is on the lines of the BJP’s culture,” said All India Congress Committee general secretary and former chief minister Oommen Chandy.
However, CPI(M) leader and Finance Minister Thomas Issac termed the usage a “mindless mistake”. "The reference are not part of the Left’s stance,” he said.
However, Deshabhimani resident editor PM Manoj, in a Facebook post, admitted the usage as “inappropriate” caused by “lack of caution” and added the paper did not mind rectifying the error.
Comments
0 comment