NEW DELHI:
Minutes after Haryana Minister Anil Vij said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a better brand name than Mahatma Gandhi, he took the comment back. His party, the BJP, had condemned the remarks clarifying that it was not the stand of the party.
“The comment I made on Mahatma Gandhi is my personal opinion. To avoid hurting anyone’s se
ntiments, I take it back,” Vij said.
His remarks had come in connection with the ongoing controversy over the photo of the PM replacing that of Gandhi in the 2017 wall calendar and table diary published by the Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The cover photo on the calendar and the diary showed PM Modi weaving khadi on a large ‘charkha’ in the same pose as Gandhiji.
The controversial Haryana minister, who is in-charge of health, sports and youth affairs in the BJP government, had went on to say that the rupee has devalued from the time Gandhi’s photo started appearing on currency notes.
The BJP distanced itself from Vij’s remarks saying the party does not endorse it.
“It is his personal opinion and has nothing to do with the party,” Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said.
Vij’s remarks about the Father of the Nation had invited angry reactions from opposition leaders.
