A newspaper advertisement put up by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday targeting the Aam Aadmi Party and its convener Arvind Kejriwal seems to have backfired.
The ad carries a garlanded portrait of Anna Hazare with a cartoon of Mr. Kejriwal. While the cartoon mocks Mr. Kejriwal for falsely swearing on his children that he would never join hands with the Congress, what sparked the anger of the AAP leader specifically, besides several others on the social media, is that the BJP also showed a garlanded portrait of Anna Hazare.
Accusing the BJP of portraying his one-time mentor as dead, Mr. Kejriwal hit out at the party and sought an apology. “Nathuram Godse killed Gandhiji on this day in 1948. BJP has killed Anna in its ad today. Shudnt BJP apologise?,” he tweeted.
He followed it up with another tweet: “I will always pray for wellbeing and good health of Annaji.”
Defending itself, the BJP said the portrait was merely symbolic. The party’s Delhi in-charge Prabhat Jha said they were trying to denote that Mr. Kejriwal had killed the values of Anna Hazare and there was nothing offensive about the anti-corruption crusader.
Mr. Kejriwal was instrumental in formulating the strategy of the India Against Corruption movement under Mr. Hazare’s leadership. The two parted ways when Mr. Kejriwal decided to form a political party.
