Politicians should not discriminate between great men: Advani

Dismayed over Congress MPs not attending a programme to pay floral tribute to Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in the Parliament, BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday said politicians should not discriminate on party lines between great men of the nation.

Congress MPs, Speaker Meira Kumar and Vice President Hamid Ansari were conspicuous by their absence from the programme organised in the Central Hall of Parliament to commemorate the birth anniversary on Mookerjee. At the BJP headquarters later, Advani noted, "The great men of the nation should not be discriminated on party lines. In the Central Hall, when we gathered to pay floral tributes to Mookherjee, I did not see anybody from the Congress. I noticed they had not come."

Advani, along with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley, Deputy Speaker Karia Munda, Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia and Rajendra Agarwal were amongst those present to pay tribute. "I did not know this could be the attitude of the Congress. If this was by mistake then Congress should make amends. But if this was by design then it is sad," Advani said.

He recalled that when the portrait of freedom fighter Veer Savarkar was put in Parliament, the Congress leaders had openly announced their opposition to it and boycotted the programme even though the President of India attended.

Advani said Mookerjee and Bhim Rao Ambedkar were inducted by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru into his Cabinet at Mahatma Gandhi's behest even though the two leaders had been critical of the Congress in the past and did not belong to that party. "Gandhi had given this suggestion to Nehru that those whose services the Congress was deprived of but who have the talent and the ability should be inducted into his Cabinet. Gandhi suggested two names," Advani said.

The BJP leader maintained that Gandhi felt Mookerjee and Ambedkar could contribute in a big way to bringing the country out of the challenges and problems it was facing at the time of independence.

Mookherjee had later resigned from the Cabinet and demanded that special status to Jammu and Kashmir should be scrapped. He opposed the permit required at that time to enter the state and was arrested in Pathankot. He was incarcerated in Jammu and Kashmir and died in jail.