IANS/New Delhi


Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari was in the thick of a new controversy yesterday for comparing the IQ level of spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda to that of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.
Gadkari said he had been misquoted, but his comment sparked a flurry of reactions in the virtual world while the ruling Congress Party demanded an apology.
In a speech at an award function in Bhopal on Sunday, Gadkari said: “In psychology, we measure the IQ level of people... But it depends from person to person, in what area they choose to use their intelligence.”
“If we could compare the IQ level of Swami Vivekananda and that of Dawood Ibrahim, then it could have been almost similar. But their direction in life is so different. While Vivekananda used it for nation building, brotherhood and spiritualism, Dawood used it for destructive purpose, to excel in the crime world,” Gadkari said.
Cornered by reporters, Gadkari denied making such a comparison. “I did not make any comparison between Swami Vivekananda and Dawood Ibrahim... I said if one used one’s intelligence properly then one could become like Vivekananda, and vice versa.”
“I am being misquoted,” the BJP president said.
The Congress said his remark demonstrated the party’s “level of thinking and mentality” and demanded an apology.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, who was until recently the Congress spokesman, said Gadkari’s remarks were “yet another manifestation of their (the BJP’s) culture and mentality.”
Tewari said that a “mere clarification” would not suffice and the BJP should “apologise to the people of this country, and specifically to the thinking people and the leaders of India.”
The BJP leaders were hard put trying to explain the comment.
Party leader Balbir Punj, while denying that Gadkari had likened the spiritual leader with Dawood, explained that the party chief “was only stating a fact” that any kind of power, money or intellect, can be used to purse good or evil things.
Twitter had a flurry of comments, some of them unsavoury.
“#Gadkari Ji. You go horribly wrong in your assessment on Swami #Vivekananda’s IQ level. Please take some efforts to read his works,” Anirban Roy posted.
Faking News posted: “If you are outraged over Jairam’s Temple/Toilets comment but justify Gadkari’s Vivekananda/Dawood comment, hmm, carry on.”
Federal Minister Jairam Ramesh had evoked strong reactions from the BJP when he said the country needed more toilets than temples.
Gadkari has been under attack from anti-corruption activists for alleged financial impropriety in business dealings in connection with his Purti Group. Gadkari has denied the charges and the party has backed him.
Meanwhile, well-known lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani yesterday resigned from the national executive of the BJP saying he deemed it morally inappropriate to serve in the party as long as Gadkari was president.
He, however, clarified that he would continue to serve the party as a member.
Jethmalani said in a letter to Gadkari: “I deem it morally, intellectually inappropriate to serve in the BJP as long as you are the president.”
He later told reporters that he was quitting the national executive due to corruption charges against Gadkari as well as his comments comparing the IQ of Vivekananda and Dawood Ibrahim.
“As far as the reasons are concerned, first of all the controversies around Gadkari, I have not got a clear answer. So I have resigned on moral grounds, and secondly because of today’s statement, comparing the IQ level of Vivekananda and Dawood,” he said.
It was his personal opinion, he added, that Gadkari should not get a second term.
“I request the party leadership, resolve it as soon as possible. I am no one to say if he should get second term or not, but my personal view is he should not,” Jethmalani said.
He is the son of party leader Ram Jethmalani.
Party spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy defended Gadkari, saying it was not appropriate to go to public with such comments.
“Some letter has been written by Mahesh Jethmalani which has gone to press before the party. Certain charges are there against Gadkari,” Rudy said.
“The BJP president has said whatever issues have been risen should be probed. Making such statements in public will damage the party’s image. If individuals start going to press, it is not in the best interest of the party,” he added.