Cong rattled over Modi hijacking the Mahatma with Swachh Bharat

BHOPAL: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked-up a broom on Gandhi Jayanti and launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement), a political debate ensued throughout the nation - has Modi usurped the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi from Congress? The deliberation is intense that Modi, who seized the inheritance rights of Congress over Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel with the construction of 182-metre tall statue of "iron man", is now out to grab the heritage of Mahatma Gandhi.
In Madhya Pradesh, the state Congress is peeved that Prime Minister Modi is sweeping pavement of a Harijan (Valmiki) Colony which was essentially a Congress activity on October 2 along with a visit to the Rajghat in New Delhi. A peeved state Congress alleged that Gandhi and the party are inseparable no matter what Narendra Modi did to capture the heritage of Bapu.
"BJP does not have the kind of leaders that we can boast of," said leader of opposition in MP assembly Satyadev Katare. "It is definitely a plan to take-over the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi but it just won't work. Instead of talking about their own leaders and founders of the BJP, the rival party is making efforts to seize our legendary leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel."
State Congress chief Arun Yadav said it was nation's misfortune that the ideology that killed Mahatma Gandhi is using his name to polish BJP's image. "If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is truly interested in cleaning India he should start from his own party where corruption is deep rooted."
State Congress vice-president Manak Agarwal claimed that Modi "wants to desecrate the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi". Speaking to TOI, he said, "Modi is only concerned about an image makeover for himself."
Another irate Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi argued, "Prime Minister is confused. On the one hand, he asks for foreign investment and on the other, he recommends khadi. What exactly is the policy he wants the nation to follow?
While Narendra Modi's Clean India drive has ruffled the Congress' feathers, state BJP is haughty having clutched the rival party's greatest icon. State BJP defended Gandhi is the father of the nation and the Congress has no right to claim that he only belongs to them.
State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan justified, "Congress left Mahatma Gandhi many decades ago in principle and ideology. They followed fake Gandhis and hardly bothered to remember the real Gandhi. BJP has always accepted the Mahatma and Gandhism as one of the five doctrines when founded."
He argued Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy is part of what BJP calls the 'panch nishthha'.
"Prime Minister Modi is doing what the Congress forgot to implement. because it was too busy with scams and corrupt practices.
It is a matter of pride for BJP that our Prime Minister has pledged to build the nation of the Mahatma's dreams," Chauhan said.
When asked why the Congress sees the BJP-RSS combine as assassins of the Mahatma, state BJP chief said, "That is their hypothesis which never had either a judicial or a factual basis. The debate is long over."