Cong uses RSS prayer line in ad campaign

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2004 12:38:15 AM ]

AHMEDABAD: The fine print on an advertisement issued in the Gujarati media on Tuesday by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), announcing its president Sonia Gandhi’s election tour, raised several eyebrows, especially
in the ‘sangh parivar.’ Below the Congress palm symbol, was a line in Sanskrit — param vaibhavam, netumetat swarashtram (I shall strive to take my country to its highest glory).

Nothing unsusual about that. Except that it is a line picked from the regular prayer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — namaste, sada vatsale, matrubhoomi! While the line has several Congressmen red in the face, the masterminds behind it are smiling. A strategy planned by the Congress to retort to the BJP’s “snatching away” of their icons like Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel, these thinktanks say.

It seems Congress seeks to “remind” voters of what the party has contributed to the country in all these years. Gujarat PCC’s campaign committee convenor, a former RSS pracharak, chose to skirt the issue, saying, “I have not seen the advertisement.”