Bengaluru, February 4: Former Union Minister and BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde quashed the reports of attacking Mahatma Gandhi and calling the freedom struggle led by him a "drama", a day after party's central leadership served the notice to Hegde. The BJP parliamentarian even claimed that all related media reports are false and an unnecessary controversy is being created. He even said that he owns his statement.

Clarifying his comments, Hegde said, as quoted by news agency ANI, " I own my statement made on 1 Feb, 2020. I never made any reference to any political party or Mahatma Gandhi or anybody else, I was just trying to categorize freedom struggle." BJP Serves Show Cause Notice to Anantkumar Hegde for Remark Against Mahatma Gandhi.

Adding more, he said, "The speech is in public domain if anyone wants to see, it is available online and on my website. I never said a word against Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. I was just discussing about our freedom struggle." Stating that an unnecessary controversy is being created, he said, "All related media reports are false, I never said what is being debated over. It is an unnecessary controversy."

Earlier, taking cognisance of the media reports on Hegde making controversial statements about Mahatma Gandhi, party's central leadership served him the notice to explain his stand. Even, reports arrived that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was upset with Hegde's comments.

In the previous statements, Hegde had Hegde questioned the freedom movement led by Gandhi and described it as an "adjustment" with the British rulers. He also said that the freedom fighters who did not sacrifice anything made the country believe that it attained independence through 'Upavas Satyagrah', Gandhi's preferred mode of agitation, and became 'mahapurush' (great person).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 04, 2020 01:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).