A comment made by CM’s media adviser Dinesh Amin Mattu, on the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and comparing it with the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has come in for criticism.
The BJP has raised objections to the comment, and says it will lodge a complaint against Amin Mattu.
Dinesh Amin Mattu had posted a status on Facebook on November 5, about the ban on NDTV India, questioning the rationale of the order. He sought to ask whether the channel had been targeted because it “did not act as a mouthpiece of the central government”.
Among the comments posted on the thread was one by a man named Venkatesh Lakkangoudr, asking Amin Mattu if he had forgotten the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi during her tenure as prime minister.
Amin Mattu replied that more dirt would be found if one dug further. He alleged that there was an Income Tax raid against Outlook for writing about AB Vajpayee’s son-in-law. Recently, for writing against the RSS in the same magazine, its editor Krishnaprasad, a Kannadiga man, lost his job; a Tehelka reporter was jailed on charges of hunting deer.
To that, Venkatesh said that Indira Gandhi had sought to “ban the whole country”, and that Amin Mattu could not see that. He continued: “So many people are dying in the state, that’s not important for you. (Instead,) some channel, is important for you.”
Amin Mattu responded: “You know what happened to Indira Gandhi in the end, don’t you? Should the same happen to your Modiji, is that your wish?”
As BJP workers began to pick up on the comment, Amin Mattu posted a clarification late on Sunday night, stating the context in which the comment was made, and also a screenshot of the image.