Maharashtra ruling partners Shiv Sena and Congress have slammed the state BJP chief, Chandrakant Patil for his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made Dr APJ Abdul Kalam the President of India. Patil in his address at the BJP Yuva Morcha meet in Pune had said, "Narendra Modi has given a place to all Muslims. He had also made Dr APJ Abdul Kalam the President. He was not made the President because he was a Muslim, but because he was an accomplished scientist.”
However, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut took a swipe at Patil and reminded him that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was appointed as the President of India in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister at that time while Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. “It was PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s masterstroke to appoint Dr Kalam as the President of India. Modi was not even there on the national politics level. However, some people take credit for everything and it becomes a joke,” he noted.
Further, Raut said Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency after it was signed by the President of India. However, there is an undeclared emergency that prevails now in the country, he claimed.
On the other hand, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Atul Londhe said considering Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's contribution to the country, he was unanimously elected President during the tenure of the then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “Patil should not commit the sin of defaming a patriot Dr Kalam claiming that he was chosen by Narendra Modi,” he noted.
Lodhe said that Vajpayee had ordered Narendra Modi to follow the Rajdharma after the Godhra riots but he did not follow it and worked for a handful of people. “Dr Kalam had given a program to the country with the dream of becoming a world superpower in 2020, but Narendra Modi gave up his ideas,” he added.
