Karnataka: Congress slams CM Basavaraj Bommai amid row over missing photo of Jawaharlal Nehru in government ad

BENGALURU: The Karnataka Congress party has taken serious objection to the BJP government advertisement celebrating the 75 years of India’s independence which sans the photograph of the nation’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
The advertisement which was released to all newspapers in the state takes note of several key leaders who played a crucial part in India’s freedom struggle from Mahatma Gandhi to revolutionaries Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekar Azad, and from India’s first home minister iron man Sardar Vallabhai Patel to constitutional architect B R Ambedkar.
Locally, the advertisement also takes cognizance of Kittur Rani Chennamma to late HS Doreswamy, who played a role in India’s independence.
However, there is no picture of Nehru in the advertisements and instead includes the photo and contribution of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, as the revolutionary Savarkar.
On Sunday morning, KPCC president DK Shivakumar shot a letter to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai claiming that the BJP government was making a "futile attempt" in trying to “distort” the recorded history of the nation.
"By deliberately omitting the mention of India’s first prime minister and the man who built the foundation of modern India, you have made a futile attempt at trying to distort our history," reads Shivakumar’s letter.
The KPCC president went on to accuse CM Bommai of playing “cheap politics” by omitting the portrait of Nehru in the advertisements and that it was nothing more than a political intent which showed in the advertisement.
On being asked about Savarkar’s portrait, Shivakumar said that it was not his place to comment on a personal interest of the BJP to honour their own leaders.
"But I never expected CM Bommai to play such cheap politics. If Nehru is to be denied as being the first PM of India, can one deny that Bommai's father, S R Bommai was the CM of this state?” he questioned.
According to the CM’s office, the advertisement was decided upon by the department of information and public relations (DIPR) and had no role of CM Bommai.