‘Will BJP name bars after Vajpayee?’

Hitting back at BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi, who recently said that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to smoke hookah and that the Congress might open hookah centres in his name,

Hitting back at BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi, who recently said that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to smoke hookah and that the Congress might open hookah centres in his name, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson and MLA for Chittapur Priyank Kharge asked whether the BJP government would name bars and liquor outlets after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee considering the fact that the BJP veteran used to consume alcohol. “Is smoking a crime? Does no one in the BJP smoke? It is said that [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee used to consume alcohol. Does BJP name bars and liquor centres after him? Mr. Nehru and Mr. Vajapayee are statesmen and we should not talk lightly about them. All the major institutions in the country were built in the Nehru period and they carry his name. BJP has no institution built under its seven years of rule to name after its leaders. That is why they are into name-changing business,” Mr. Priyank said. Referring to the naming of a flyover in Bengaluru after Veer Savarkar, the Congress leader said that Savarkar never fought the British rule to free India from colonial clutches and yet he was being projected as a freedom fighter by the BJP.