Sunday, Oct 20, 2002
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By Our Special Correspondent
Senior Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, addressing a press conference against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at AICC (I) headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday. Party leaders, Manmohan Singh and Ambica Soni, are also seen . — Photo: S. Arneja
Seven members of the Congress Working Committee addressed a joint press conference here today to roundly condemn Mr. Togadia's description of Ms. Gandhi as a "dog from Italy" made in a public rally in Bhuj, Gujarat. Earlier, the CWC members in Delhi met informally at the party headquarters to deliberate upon the nature of response. The Congress leaders said they were not picking up the cudgels for their leader alone, they were raising their voice for the sake of decency in polity itself. The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, said: "We must ponder as to where this kind of debasing of political culture would lead the country to". Mr. Togadia had crossed all limits and his speech was "extreme vulgarity", The Congress expected the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the leading BJP functionaries to condemn this kind of attack which debased political culture. In fact, according to R.K. Dhawan, their response would not have been necessary had Mr. Togadia's political masters reined him in. The Rajya Sabha member, Pranab Mukherjee, said: "We are not over-reacting because the statement was against a particular individual, but we are expressing our concern over the debasing of political culture". However, when questioned whether the Congress was "over-reacting" — particularly as the CWC seldom reacted in such fashion — Dr. Singh said with elections on the horizon in Gujarat, there was a fear that this could vitiate the political atmosphere. The other CWC members who attended the press conference were Ambika Soni, Shivraj Patil, Natwar Singh and Kamal Nath. Ahmed Patel, who could not attend the press conference, said in a statement that the "lust for power has pushed people like Mr. Togadia into a distressingly low and appalling behaviour". Describing Mr. Togadia as a "shame for Gujarat and every Gujarati", Mr. Patel said his utterances were a direct and humiliating attack on the ethos and culture of Hinduism which attached divinity to womankind. Speaking at a gathering of villagers at Lodia in Bhuj, Mr. Togadia is reported to have said while referring to Godhra: ``First, the local pups started barking (against the Hindus). They were then joined by dogs from other parts of the country. And last, came Italy ni kutri (a dog from Italy)''
Togadia's response
PTI reports: Mr. Togadia, responding to the controversy, said he had not named ``any particular person'' and that he had made a general statement about all those who ``curse Hindus''. Asked by a TV channel whether his references to ``Italy'' while making the controversial remarks did not mean an attack against Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Togadia shot back, ``You secularists have imposed it on Sonia Gandhi. I have nothing to do with it.''
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