Urge PM to introspect on how to preserve political culture of Founding Fathers: Mitra

Kolkata: Putting forward the examples of respect shown by Gandhiji and Nataji to each other despite their differences in ideology and strategy, the state Finance Minister Amit Mitra attacked Prime Minister Narendra on Gandhi Jayanti urging him to "introspect on how to preserve, not destroy, this political culture of Founding Fathers".

In a tweet on Gandhi Jayanti, the state Finance Minister stated: "2ndOct recall: Gandhiji and Subhas Bose fought bitterly on ideology and strategy. But Subhas, 1st to call Gandhi, Father of the Nation and Gandhi called Subhas 'Patriot of Patriots': I urge the PM to introspect on how to preserve, not destroy, this political culture of Founding Fathers."

Mitra's request to the Prime Minister for introspect comes in view of the recent spate of incidents where violence is going up and alleged attempts are made to stifle the voice of the Opposition.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly attacked the Centre for its various moves that adversely affected the federal structure of the country and most institutions in the country "are being saffronised".

Now, the tweet of the state's Finance minister has come up as a major dig at the Prime Minister when the Centre's claim of following rules during voting on farm Bills on September 20 found to have discrepancies with television footages of the proceedings in Rajya Sabha.

There had also been allegations that the Opposition leaders were not allowed to speak and Central investigating agencies were being sent just to harass them. The national education policy was framed without taking into account the views of the state as education is in the concurrent list.

It was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who first addressed Gandhiji as the Father of the Nation in his condolence message on the demise of Kasturba Gandhi.

Netaji and Gandhiji had differences in ideology over the ways and means to earn freedom. While Netaji followed the path of "Give me blood and I shall give you freedom", Gandhiji was an ardent follower of non-violence.