The Congress on Thursday backed Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on his stand in the controversy surrounding actor Amitabh Bachchan's presence at an official function in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Congress spokesperson and media in-charge Janardan Dwivedi, however, said party workers' anger over the invitation to the actor was justified as he identified himself with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have nothing against the individual as an actor and there is nothing unusual about the incident,'' he told journalists here.
“The party is aware of whatever has happened there. The Chief Minister has already given a clarification and we have nothing more to say.”
Mr. Dwivedi said Mr. Bachchan had been associated with another political party (Samajwadi Party). His wife had been given Rajya Sabha ticket by that party, which was opposed to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Chavan himself clarified that the invitation to Mr. Bachchan had been extended by the PWD Minister, who is from the Nationalist Congress Party, an ally of the coalition, while some senior Congress workers were left out.
BSP's “cheap” retaliation
On another issue, Mr. Dwivedi described as “cheap retaliation” by the Bahujan Samaj Party, which released a photograph of Congress president Sonia Gandhi wearing a garland with currency notes, and said it was no comparison to the one presented to BSP chief Mayawati.
“For one thing, we are not sure about the authenticity of the photograph if we go by the posture and for another, it is possible that an enthusiastic party worker could have put a few currency notes on the garland presented to Ms. Gandhi.”
But, “in the case of Ms. Mayawati, the garland was prepared and everything was pre-planned.”
Ms. Mayawati came under sharp criticism after she was presented a garland of currency notes, believed to be worth a few crores, at a BSP function in Lucknow last week.
