SURAT: City’s textile industrialists, originally hailing from Bihar, find themselves in a tight spot for sponsoring advertisements praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, which have created a controversy in their native state and got its chief minister, Nitish Kumar, livid. The fact that Nitish Kumar is mulling legal action has made them a worried lot.
The industrialists, who financed the advertisements published on Sunday in newspapers of Bihar, were now clarifying that they were not aware about the content of the advertisements. “It was a goodwill gesture by us for Modiji who helped Bihar during floods (in 2008),” said Ajay Chaudhary, president of Bihar Sanskriti Samiti (BSS). There are 40 names, in the sponsorship consortium, which paid the amount in cash to the advertisement agency, sources informed. Along with Bihar Vikas Parishad (BVP) and Bihar Vikash Mandal (BVM), BSS has sponsored the advertisements published in dailies in Bihar.
Vinod Paliwal, member of BVP and one of the sponsors whose name is carried in advertisement, said, “I was not aware about the content of the advertisement. I received a call from BVP office and requested to give oral confirmation.” Paliwal, owner of Sudha Dyeing and Printing Mill, and many like him migrated to Surat couple of decades ago from Bihar.
In 2008, BVM and other organisations collected around Rs 15 crore worth of goods and cash from the city and sent it to Bihar on a special train, which was flagged off by Modi at a public function organised here.
