shiv sena MPs write to Sonia

15 Dec 2009

SHIV SENA MPs WRITE TO SONIA ON DARDAS

From Our Bureau

NEW DELHI: In an unusual signed letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, 14 Shiv Sena MPs have accused the Darda family running the Lokmat group of newspapers of giving reins of their Marathi television news channel to one having history of spewing poison against her.

Claiming compelling reason to reach out the president of a rival outfit in an unconventional manner, the MPs seek to expose what it claims to be a nexus of Vijay Darda, Rajdeep Sardessai and Nikhil Wagle in the TV venture to show how Dardas milch Nehru-Gandhi family by "putting up a farce of loyalty to enjoy power for decades."

The MPs say the old nexus among them has now become public, with Dardas' Marathi daily Lokmat entering into a tie-up with IBN television news channel of Sardessai and Wagle becoming head of their Marathi TV channel.

They sought to bring to Sonia Gandhi a derogatory article written by Wagle in "Apala Mahanagar", a Marathi newspaper of Mumbai which he used to edit, making indecent suggestions about her after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination entitled "Sonia yanchya niwadimage Dhawan yanchya haat" (Dhawan's hand behind Sonia's election).

"The article made such indecent suggestions about you that notwithstanding our political difference with you, we feel constrained to even reproduce what was written," they write, pointing out how the Congress workers ransacked Wagle's newspaper office and let him off only after he gave a personal apology at a police station.

"So skillful have been the Dardas in camouflaging their hostility to the Nehru-Gandhi family with a fake loyalty that the Congress leadership has made one brother, Vijay Darda, a member of Rajya Sabha while another, Rajendra Darda is a cabinet minister in Maharashtra," says the 2-page letter.

"Lest we should be misunderstood, we wish to make it clear that the Shiv Sena is capable of meeting any political challenge," the letter added.

Signatories to the letter are: Manohar Joshi and Anant Geete, leaders of Shiv Sena groups in the two Houses of Parliament, as also Sanjay Raut, Bhartkumar Raut, Shivajirao Adhairao-Patil, Bhawna Gwali, Anand Paranjpe, Subhash Wankhede, Anandrao Adsul, Ganesh Dudhgaonkar, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Chandrakhand Khaire, Pratap Rao Jadhav and Gajanan Babar.

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