Raipur, Aug. 6: The ruling BJP mouthpiece Deep Kamal has triggered a political storm here following its alleged portrayal of the UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, as a w***h on the cover page of the latest issue of the magazine.
The cover page of the July issue of the in-house magazine of the party carried a cartoon of a woman resembling the Congress chief. The woman, portrayed as w***h, sports Congress’ hand symbol on her forehead. A controversial title “Mahangai Dayan Khaye Jayat Hai”, a line of popular number of yet-to-be released Hindi film — Peepli Live — featured prominently on the page.
The cover-page cartoon also depicts look-alikes of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Union finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and the Union agriculture minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, with some sarcastic remarks on them.
Protesting against depicting Mrs Gandhi in an “indecent and disgraceful manner”, the Congress leaders and workers burnt the effigy of the Raman Singh government and the copies of the magazine in different parts of the state including the state capital.
In a statement issued here on Friday, the state BJP vice-president, Mr Sachidanand Upasane, defended the party mouthpiece , saying the cartoon portrayed in the magazine is a symbolic representation of spiraling price rise of essential commodities and it never intended to defame Ms Gandhi.
“The problem with Congress is that they see Mrs Sonia Gandhi everywhere. We have not tried to show Mrs Gandhi as Mehangai Dayan (dearness w***h) in the magazine,” the BJP vice president, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said.