New Delhi:
The Congress today asked the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP to explain if it thinks of one of the nation's highest honours - the Bharat Ratna - as "a ceiling fan that comes with a seven-year warranty".
The remark, made by Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury, attempts to keep the controversy ticking over BJP leader Chandan Mitra's demand for economist and Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen to be stripped of his Bharat Ratna when the next BJP-led government is in power.
Mr Mitra, who represents the BJP in the Upper House, recanted his remarks today. "I do regret the part about taking away of Bharat Ratna from Dr Sen. I oversaid it," he said to reporters in Delhi.
After a television interview in which Dr Sen said he would not support the BJP's Narendra Modi for Prime Minister, Mr Mitra had tweeted, 'Amartya Sen says he doesn't want Modi to be India's PM. Is Sen even a voter in India? Next NDA government must strip him of Bharat Ratna." Other BJP leaders like Kirti Azad endorsed that view.
Dr Sen was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. Speaking to NDTV, he said he was "surprised and disappointed" by Mr Mitra's comment.
"Just as I have a right to say that as an Indian citizen, the kind of Prime Minister I have... I would not like to see someone who would generate concern on part of large sections of the community, the minorities. I think Chandan Mitra has the right to say that the Bharat Ratna awarded to me should be rightly stripped. Whether he can do it or not is not quite clear. Because for one thing, it was the BJP government in office with Vajpayee, who..... who gave it to me," he said.
But Dr Sen also said that his remarks on Mr Modi should not be seen as an endorsement of the incumbent UPA.
The BJP yesterday made it clear that Mr Mitra was not reflecting the views of the party.
"BJP is not a part of it. Views expressed by member/s can only be construed as their personal opinion," said Nirmala Sitharaman on Twitter.