Congress Darshan editor, who criticized Jawaharlal Nehru, clears the air

Mumbai: Sudhir Joshi, the content editor of Mumbai Congress journal 'Congress Darshan' and the man, who apparently left Congress red-faced on its 31st foundation day, cleared his stand on the controversial articles on Tuesday.

"It is Congress mouthpiece and they did not like what I wrote so they took the decision," Sudhir Joshi told ANI.

"I wrote the matter and sent it to editor," the sacked journal further asserted.

The controversial articles published in the December issue of party mouthpiece criticized Congress stalwart Jawaharlal Nehru's policy on Kashmir issue and claimed that Sonia Gandhi’s father was a fascist soldier. It also stated that Nehru should have listened to former Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel on international affairs.

“Had Patel been heard (by Nehru) then, the problems of Kashmir, China, Tibet and Nepal wouldn’t have existed now. Patel opposed Nehru’s move of taking the Kashmir issue to the UN,” the article says.

The article adds that the relationship between the two leaders was strained and that if Nehru had embraced Patel's foresight, many problems in international affairs would not have arisen.

"Despite Patel getting the post of deputy prime minister and home minister, the relations between the two leaders remained strained, and both had threatened to resign time and again," the article says.

Another article describes Sonia Gandhi’s early life, including her ambition to become an air hostess as well as the allegation that her father was a member of the Italian forces that lost to the Russians in the World War. “Sonia Gandhi’s father Stephano Maino was a former fascist soldier,” it says.

The controversial articles appeared in the Hindi edition of Congress Darshan.