'Rahul remark on Pak division not pre-meditated'

New Delhi, Apr 16: The Congress today justified party MP RahulGandhi's remark taking credit for the Gandhi family for dismembermentof Pakistan, saying he had only talked of history referring to a warwhich was thrust on India by that country.

"All parties have been highlighting the achievements of theirleaders during their poll campaigns. It is but natural,"CongressSpokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said, adding it was not a pre-meditatedremark.

"Right from the BJP to BSP and Samajwadi Party all have beentalking of the achievements of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Kanshi Ramand late Ram Manohar Lohia respectively during poll campaigns. What isthen wrong in Mr Gandhi talking of a fact of history referring to theultimate result of Bangladesh war which was thrust on us," MrChaturvedi asked talking to mediapersons here.

Subsantiating his claim that Pakistan had thrust the war on India,he recalled that it was the bombardment of Agra and Chaklala in 1971 byPakistan which provoked the Bangladesh war, which ultimately resultedin the dismemberment of Pakistan.

Rebutting the Opposition charge of the Congress promoting dynasticpolicy, Mr Chaturvedi read out a long list of senior leaders fromdifferent parties promoting their sons or daughters into politics toemphasise that this was a phenomenon evident in all political partieswithout exception. The list containing the names of Mr Atal BihariVajpayee, Pramod Mahajan, Rajmata Scindia, Kalyan Singh and JaswantSingh, among others, who promoted their offsprings to come to politicswas distributed among journalists.

"The question of promoting dynastic politics would arise ifsomebody from the family is nominated to a position but if he or shecomes up on his or her own through election after getting theendorsement of the people, it can not be dubbed as dynastic," he argued.

Mr Chaturvedi pointed out that a galaxy of Congress leaders likeSubhash Chandra Bose, Moti Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Indira Gandhi andMaulana Azad and Kamala Nehru had participated in the freedom struggleled by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru. The entire families usedto be in jail in those days.

Claiming that it was nothing pre-meditated on the part of Mr RahulGandhi to have referred to the dismemberment of Pakistan, the CongressSpokesman said raising the issue was natural in view of the themepicked up by Mr Gandhi in his speech.

UNI

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