Suresh Gopi Clarifies ‘Mother Of India’ Remark About Indira Gandhi.

Union minister Suresh Gopi on Saturday clarified his remarks where he called former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‘mother of India’, stating that his comments were misinterpreted.

‘I called Indira Gandhi mother of Congress party’: Suresh Gopi after his remarks spark row.

Misinterpretation of Comments

A day after his reference to former prime minister Indira Gandhi as “mother of India” received widespread attention, Union Minister Suresh Gopi on Sunday clarified that he called the late leader the mother of the Congress party in the country and his remarks were misinterpreted by the media.
Union minister Suresh Gopi on Sunday issued a clarification over his recent remarks where he called former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi “mother of India”, stating that his comments were misinterpreted.

the actor-turned-politician explained that he had referred to Indira Gandhi as the mother of Congress party in India and said that there was nothing wrong in it.

“What did I say? As far as the Congress is concerned…whether anyone likes it or not… K Karunakaran is the father of the Congress party in Kerala. In India, its mother is Indira Gandhi. I said this from my heart,” Suresh Gopi said.

Political Gurus and Sanatana Dharma

Earlier, Gopi, who was inducted as the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Ministry of Tourism, referred to veteran leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxists, EK Nayanar and K Karunakaran, as his “political gurus.Simply because my father’s family was a Congress family, my mother’s family worked up to the formation of Janasangh in Kerala…I was in the SFI. But the reason behind my shift was not political. It was emotional. I will live my life emotionally as well, being acceptable to all classes of life, all segments of life, all levels of life,” the BJP MP said on Sunday.

“My parentage, my traditions, the essence of Sanatana Dharma–I have to perform all those valuable traits. Simply because Indira Gandhi is Congress, and for that draconian act of hers, I cannot sway away from attributing. I call her the real architect of India post-independence until her death,” he added.

Electoral Victory and Cabinet Position

Notably, Suresh Gopi defeated K Karunakaran’s son, K Muraleedharan, in the Thrissur constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. The actor-turned-politician has become the first Lok Sabha BJP MP from Kerala after winning the Thrissur constituency. He defeated the ruling Left Democratic Front candidate, V.S. Sunilkumar, by a margin of 74,686 votes.

Gopi was sworn in as Minister of State in the Modi 3.0 cabinet. He assumed charge as Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas as well as the Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday morning, earlier this week.

Gopi said as he viewed Indira Gandhi as “bharathathinte mathavu” (mother of India), Karunakaran was the “father of the Congress party in the state” for him.

He explained that describing Karunakaran as the “father” of the Congress in Kerala was not a disrespect to the founders or co-founders of the grand old party in the state.

Gopi won the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat recently, opening the BJP’s electoral account in Kerala.

Thrissur had witnessed a three-way contest for the Lok Sabha polls, with major candidates from the Congress, BJP, and CPI locked in a neck-and-neck battle.