Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent false claims, Congress senior leader Ahmed Patel took to Twitter and asked if anyone from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s present leadership had attended the funeral of Bangaru Laxman, the saffron party’s only Dalit president.
Is it true that when BJP’s first & only Dalit President, Bangaru Laxman ji’s funeral was held in Telangana, except Advani ji no one from present BJP leadership bothered to attend ?
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) November 19, 2018
Laxman, who died in 2014, had served as the BJP President from 2000-2001. Patel wrote in his tweet if it was true that no-one except LK Advani had “bothered to attend” Laxman’s funeral in Telangana.
PM Modi had attacked the Congress during an election rally in Chhattisgarh, saying, “The country knows that Sitaram Kesri, a Dalit, was not allowed to complete his five-year-term as Congress president; he was thrown out of office and into the footpath to make way for Sonia Gandhi as the new party chief.”
The Prime Minister was called out for the falsity of his claim by many, including Sitaram Kesri’s political advisor at the time, Tariq Anwar. Anwar was quoted by ANI, “PM is again wrong as Kesari ji was not a Dalit,he belonged to ‘vaish’ community. Kesari Ji himself offered to resign from post of Congress president if Sonia ji was ready to take over. At that time I was Sitaram Kesari’s political advisor so I’m aware of it.”