After a series of controversial tweets by veteran actor and politician Naga Babu, his younger brother and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan on Saturday, issued a statement saying that Naga Babu’s views are his individual opinions and should not be associated with his party. Naga Babu is a member of Jana Sena’s Political Action Committee.
In a media statement, Pawan Kalyan said, “The opinions expressed by Naga Babu are solely personal and are not concerned with the party. We have been informing the opinions and decisions of the party through official documents and official social media from time to time. I appeal to take only them into consideration.”
Referring to Naga Babu and asking him to refrain from posting controversial opinions, Pawan said, “I would like to clarify one thing to every individual belonging to Jana Sena Party that this is the period where people are confronting unprecedented difficulties. People are facing many hardships with corona pandemic. I request that we shall not touch issues other than serving the people in troubled situations. I appeal to move forward to serve the people without violating discipline.”
On May 19, the occasion of the birthday of Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, Naga Babu tweeted saying that Godse was a “patriot”. He said that Gandhi’s assassination was “debatable.” Accusing the media of those times as “biased”, he said that no media presented Godse’s side of the story and that the media was in favour of the then ruling government.
Hailing Godse, he had said that though Godse was aware that he’d be “dishonoured”, he killed Gandhi and his patriotism shouldn’t be contested. “He is a true patriot. On his birthday, I felt like remembering him once. Poor Nathuram Godse,” Naga Babu tweeted.
These controversial tweets on the line of extremist Hindutva elements, evoked a strong response from the Congress party. Some of them even filed complaints with the police against the actor.
The following day, on May 20, offering a clarification, he tweeted, “Whatever I tweet, it's my personal responsibility. Jana Sena party or any of my family has no involvement in my opinion.”
On Saturday (May 23), again, the veteran actor opined that images of figures like Savarkar, Subash Chandra Bose, Dr B R Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao and Dr Abdul Kalam should also be printed on Indian currency notes.
గాంధీ గారు బ్రతికి ఉంటే ఆయన కూడా తనతో పాటు దేశానికి సేవ చేసిన దేశభక్తులని గౌరవించమని తప్పకుండా చెప్పేవారు.దేశం కోసం జీవితాల్ని త్యాగం చేసిన మహానుభావుల పేర్లు తప్ప మొహాలు గుర్తు రావడం లేదు.భావితరాలకు కరెన్సీ నోట్ల పై వారి ముఖ పరిచయం చెయ్యాల్సిన బాధ్యత ప్రభుత్వాలపై ఉంది.
— Naga Babu Konidela (@NagaBabuOffl) May 22, 2020
“If Gandhi was alive, he too would have desired that the national leaders who offered service to the nation get the same honour.” Naga Babu added that the images of the leaders are fading from memory of the Indian citizens and hence requested the government to print notes with images of the afore-mentioned leaders.