Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “new father of the nation” remark for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked what has he done for “new India”.
Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, had called PM Modi, the ‘Father of the Nation’ of ‘New India’ on December 21.
Hitting out at the remark, Nitish Kumar said, “They had nothing to do with the fight for Independence. RSS didn’t contribute to the fight for Independence…we read about the remark ‘New father of the nation’…what has the ‘new father’ of ‘new India’ done for the nation?”
Amruta Fadnavis stirred a controversy when she suggested that India has two fathers of the nation.
“One belonged to the India of yore and the other is for a new India. I believe that Mahatma Gandhi is the ‘Father of the Nation’ of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the ‘Father of the Nation’ of new India,” she said.
Retorting to the remark, Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole said that Mahatma Gandhi cannot be compared with anyone and took a jibe at the BJP’s “new India.”
Father of the nation can’t be compared with anyone. Their (BJP) ‘new India’ is only about making a few friends super-rich while the rest of the population remains downtrodden and hungry. We don’t need this ‘new India,” Patole said.
Senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari also hit out at the remarks made by the wife of the state’s deputy chief minister. “There can be two fathers in BJP but not in the country. There’ll be only one Father of Nation…” he said.
