Krishna Saagar Rao asks Congress to stop appropriating Gandhi's legacy

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State chief spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao asked the Congress party to stop appropriating Mahatma Gandhi and his legacy as their own.

In a statement here on Tuesday, he said, "Gandhi is a national leader who fought for India's freedom by uniting millions in his decade's long endeavour."

The BJP leader said that Gandhi was never a political leader, never held a political position, nor did he ever lead a political party.

"He led a mammoth freedom movement until India accomplished freedom from the British. Congress party should stop misleading people of India by appropriating Gandhi's legacy as part of its historic timeline," he said.

Rao found fault with the Congress owning Gandhi's legacy as part of its party's legacy and thus lowering the grand stature of a grand national leader.

Rao said that the pre-independent Congress was purely a platform for freedom fighters and people from all ideologies have worked in the party. It is also not a secret that Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress party to be shut down after independence, as the platform served its purpose.

Congress party's historic timeline can only be counted from the time India adopted its constitution in 1950 and recognised political parties. Gandhi was a national leader and not a Congress leader. Congress can't prove this historic fact as otherwise, he added.