Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will pay tributes to BJP icon Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi on Monday. This decision appears to have touched a raw nerve among a section in the party with an AICC coordinator in the president's office triggering a controversy by accusing the former Prime Minister of being a "British informer" and one who incited mobs during Babri demolition and Nellie massacre.
Rahul will be visiting Saidav Atal, which is Vajpayee's memorial, besides Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat, Jawaharlal Nehru's Shanti Van, Lal Bahadur Shastri's Vijay Ghat, Indira Gandhi's Shakti Sthal and Rajiv Gandhi's samadhi Veer Bhumi on Monday between 7:30 am and 8:30 am.
He was to visit the memorials on Saturday after the Bharat Jodo Yatra padayatra ended in the evening, but as the rally reached the Red Fort late, it was first rescheduled for Sunday and then later to Monday.
However, Rahul's decision to visit Vajpayee's memorial appears to have not gone well with a section with Gaurav Pandhi, one of the four AICC coordinators in Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's office, taking to Twitter to criticise Vajpayee.
"In 1942, like all other members of the RSS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee boycotted the Quit India Movement and worked as a British Informer reporting against those who participated in the ‘andolan’. Be it Nellie massacre or demolition of Babri, Vajpayee played an important role in inciting mobs," Pandhi said in a tweet on Vajpayee's birth anniversary.
"There is a reason why BJP leaders today always liken (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi with (Mahatma) Gandhi, (Sardar Vallabhai) Patel or other Congress leaders and not (VD) Savarkar, Vajpayee or (MS) Golwalkar. They know the truth!" he added.
The tweets did not go well with the party leadership, sources said adding, Pandhi was "pulled up" for the tweets in "bad taste". The leadership also felt that it was "idiotic" to make such a comment when Rahul had taken a decision to visit the memorial as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and they were to speak in one voice.
However, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh tweeted that Vajpayee was first term MP when he co-signed a letter to Nehru requesting for Parliament to be convened earlier than scheduled to debate the Chinese invasion. "Nehru agreed. Now MPs can't even discuss ongoing Chinese incursions," he said.
Rahul has been attacking the BJP-RSS and the choice of paying tributes to an BJP-RSS icon at his memorial is seen as an attempt to catch his rival off-guard and blunt the attacks on him, as he has embarked on Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Through this, sources said, Rahul is also marking a difference between Vajpayee regime and Modi regime. On Saturday, Ramesh has said that people like M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh are welcome to the yatra to unite the country but had omitted names like Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Countering Pandhi, Uttar Pradesh BJP Minister Jitin Prasada, who was once a close confidante of Rahul, tweeted, "Leaders like Atalji have earned the respect of leaders across political lines and the love of the people of India because of his undying commitment to the nation. Does this have official sanction from the party?"
In Patna, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he could "never forget" the mentorship of Vajpayee, who had showered on him " so much of love and affection".
Kumar was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a state function which is organised every year on the late leader's birth anniversary.
"I have deep respect (shraddha) for Atal-ji, a reason why we have been observing a state function on his birth anniversary. As an MP, I always used to listen attentively to all his speeches. Then I had the privilege of being a minister in his cabinet with three portfolios," Kumar was quoted by PTI as saying.
"He used to shower so much love and affection. All proposals from me used to receive his quick approval. I cannot forget all that", Kumar, who had snapped ties with BJP in August, charging the current leadership of the party with lacking the magnanimity that characterised the Vajpayee era.