By Mumtaz Alam, India Tomorrow,
New Delhi/Mumbai: In another, seemingly deliberate and frustrated move, Bharatiya Janata Party has now depicted former Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra, SM Mushrif in a newspaper advertisement endorsing the party’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Talking to India Tomorrow, author of famous Who Killed Karkare? book, Mushrif denied he sent any endorsement for Modi and said he has sent a notice to the party for illegally using his name.
The quarter-page ad appeared in English daily Indian Express on 27 Feb 2014. The ad released by BJP office in Vapi district of Gujarat shows allegedly what SM Mushrif has to say about Modi and Gujarat.
The callout of SM Mushrif along with his picture reads: “The most safe place for Muslims today is Gujarat. I dealt with several states. But no Chief Minister is as good, as strong and determined as Modi. Now even Muslims realize that Modi is good for them.”
Talking to India Tomorrow over phone, Mr. Mushrif said: “The statement has been wrongly attributed to me. The BJP did not take permission from me for using my name in the ad. I have just emailed a notice to the party.”
In his email notice to the party, Mr Mushrif said that by wrongly attributing some statement to him, the Vapi unit of the party “has lowered my image in the public eye & has defamed me.”
As the party did not take prior permission before using his name in the advertisement, the party is “liable for action both criminal & civil,” if it did not publish clarification in the same papers where the ad was published.
“You are hereby requested to give suitable clarification in this regard and ensure that the same is prominently published in all the news-papers in which the advertisement has been published, failing which I shall be constrained to take criminal and/or civil action against the party,” Mr. Mushrif wrote in his letter to BJP.
Mushrif said that he had written an article in the English fortnightly Milli Gazette wherein he had said that Gujarat has become a safer place after the state government banned activities of Intelligence Bureau.
It was no way an endorsement for Modi, said Mushrif.
The ad shows frustration of BJP and Modi for reaching out to Muslims. The ad also carries alleged statement of Zafar Sareshwala and Shahid Siddiqi.
It is second time in less than one month that BJP had wrongly used name and face of eminent people in its election ads. Earlier this month, Metro Man E Sreedharan’s photo was used in banner and hoardings of BJP in Delhi. Sreedharan also denied he had given permission for the endorsement and the party later apologized.
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