Thiruvananthapuram: Enraged by Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M)’s mouthpiece mocked the Congress president by referring him as ‘Pappu’ (loser) triggering an outrage.
The Congress president was a failed politician who chickened out of locking horns with the BJP in its citadel, according to an editorial in Deshabhimani.
The write-up vouched for the BJP’s contention that Rahul chose Wayanad as his second seat eyeing the minorities.
It also said the minorities cannot be taken for a ride with this trickery. It is to be noted that the party newspaper’s view that Rahul was contesting from Wayanad due to fear of failure in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh stands contradicts the opinion of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Pinarayi had said Rahul would taste success in Amethi as the BJP’s chances of winning from there were remote.
The SP-BSP alliance was not contesting from Amethi and it has thrown its weight behind the Congress, he said on Sunday.
The editorial stated that Rahul’s majority dipped by close to two lakh votes in the last parliamentary elections in Amethi, and if there was a further dip in the forthcoming polls, it can only result in an embarrassing defeat for the Congress president.
In the last UP Assembly elections, the Congress had to bite dust in all the five Assembly segments in Amethi constituency, the editorial pointed out.
The Congress would lose its face if Rahul is defeated in Amethi, the Nehru family’s pocket borough, and moreover, there isn’t a safe seat for the Congress leader in north India, as per the write-up.
That’s the reason why Rahul followed the footsteps of his grandmother Indira Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi to contest from south India. The editorial stated that like north India, south India was also a “barren land” for the Congress.
Rahul is eyeing the votes of the minorities instead of Congress votes in Wayanad, where minority sections are a majority.
Why should Wayanad vote for Rahul who has declared that his workplace is Amethi and would retain that seat if he wins from there, the editorial asked.
Coming down heavily on the Congress, the editorial said it was the Congress that provided fodder for the growth of the BJP.
The editorial kicked up a row on the social media with many, including Congress MLA V T Balram, criticizing the write-up.
“The CPM leaders are all ‘great’, and others should respect them. But the CPM’s mouthpiece can come out with an editorial with this tone and language. When a mainstream newspaper, which survives by pocketing crores of rupees from the state exchequer as advertising income and by forcing the common man to subscribe the daily along with the government’s welfare pension, writes an editorial like this, it is an insult to the Malayalam media,” Balram wrote on his Facebook post.
Balram added that LDF candidate from Ernakulam P Rajeev is the chief editor of ‘Deshabhimani’, the CPI (M)’s mouthpiece, and the editorial shows erosion of values on the part of the daily and Rajeev.
He also demanded an apology from Rajeev.
Meanwhile, ‘Deshabhimani’ resident editor P M Manoj came out with a rejoinder as the editorial courted controversy.
“The usage ‘Pappu strike’ in Monday’s editorial was inappropriate. It was a mistake that cropped out of carelessness. We won’t hesitate in rectifying the error,” Manoj said on his Facebook post in Malayalam.
“The act of personally vilifying Rahul Gandhi or any other politician, for that matter, is not part of our politics,” he added.
“We have only resisted when the BJP mocked Rahul Gandhi by calling him ‘Pappumon’, and when Congress' Vadakara candidate K Muraleedharan addressed Sonia Gandhi as ‘Mathamma’.
It is quite funny to see some people getting quite emotional now though they had nothing against the BJP when it called Rahul ‘Pappumon’,” Manoj said in his post.
The reaction of Balram is very strange as he had recently besmirched freedom fighter and communist leader AKG, who was praised even by his rivals, and stood by his stand despite strong criticism against him, added Manoj.
