By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) says the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stooped to a new low with its "mudslinging" against Pratibha Patil, the ruling United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) presidential nominee.
"The scurrilous campaign unleashed by the BJP against the UPA candidate is stooping to such low levels, which we thought even the BJP was not capable of," the CPI-M has said in the latest issue of its mouthpiece People's Democracy.
"The no holds barred mudslinging and character assassination in the contest for the highest office of the Republic has, indeed, been most demeaning," it said referring to the BJP-led campaign against Patil.
The CPI-M, which supports the UPA government from outside and has backed the nomination of Patil, however, did not defend her on the various charges levelled at her by the opposition.
The opposition has accused Patil, who will be India's first woman president if elected, of non-payment of a loan taken from a cooperative bank for a sugar factory floated by her family in 1973 in Maharashtra. She has also been accused of shielding her brother in a murder case.
Pointing out that the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking cancellation of the nomination papers of Patil on the ground that she was in debt to the public exchequer, the article said the opposition could not substantiate its charges.
"Undermining constitutional authority has always been an important part of the communal agenda advanced by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)/BJP," the editorial said adding that both the organisations wanted to "transform" the constitutional authorities that safeguard the secular character by converting the Indian republic to a "Hindu Rashtra".
The communists also took a dig at the BJP's campaign for Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an independent candidate for president backed by the opposition.
Pointing out that Shekhawat was in the police force during the Quit India movement, according to personal details given by the BJP, the editorial said: "Everyone in the country knows that the Quit India movement was launched in 1942. Millions of freedom fighters were subjected to police brutalities during this movement. What does it mean to serve the police force in this period and leave the service with a discharge note commending the performance soon after our independence?"
It added: "In the post-Babri Masjid demolition period, the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of the government led by Shekhawat in Rajasthan on the grounds that it worked against the fundamental structure of our constitution by sending kar sevaks (volunteers) for the demolition."
The article also said the BJP was "contributing to creating unseemly controversies for their own candidate and the incumbent vice president. Such is the political bankruptcy of the BJP."