mumbai congress inflicted an acute embarrassment upon itself when the partys mouthpiece in mumbai published a series of articles critical of supremo sonia gandhi and former pm jawaharlal nehru to make matters worse the articles carried a tone even congress rivals have been loathe to employ and came on the foundation day of the 131yearold outfit the first article in congress darshan criticized nehru for his inept handling of the kashmir problem adding that india would not have faced so many problems if the first pm had listened to sardar vallabhbhai patel it also called sonias father a member of italian fascist forces that fought against the russian army while another writeup lampooned her for becoming the congress chief within 62 days of joining the party as a primary member in 1997 the mouthpiece is edited by mumbai congress president sanjay nirupam and the articles were unsigned the city unit promptly sacked content editor sudhir joshi nirupam took full responsibility but added he was only a nominal editor and the daytoday affairs of the magazine were run by a board bjp relished the row which echoed its pet themes of nehru vs patel and dynasty politics without the saffron signature which would surely have invited a counter of being a belowthebelt attack union minister prakash javadekar twisted the knife saying nirupam was a former shiv sainik who used to write such articles in sena mouthpiece saamna nirupams factional rival and former maharashtra minister naseem khan demanded his resignation his rivals are sure to use the controversy to mount pressure on the city chief though the central leadership hinted it may be a closed chapter but action apart congress spent the day ducking for cover as television news and social media went into overdrive reporting the damaging excerpts of the controversial articles on the congress chief the writeup elaborated on her education and career it said she was born in a small village in italy and her father stefano maino was a member of the fascist forces it said sonia became a primary member of the party in 1997 and became its chief in less than 62 days subsequently it said sonia made an unsuccessful attempt to form the government at the centre in 2004 she was elected the leader of a political front comprising 16 political parties it said she took on prime minister narendra modi notwithstanding the humiliating defeat in the 2014 lok sabha polls on sardar patel the article said from the correspondence between him and nehru it was clear that on major policies there were strong differences between them had nehru listened to patel the situation in kashmir china tibet and nepal would have been better the writeup said a trusted aide of mahatma gandhi patel had imposed a ban on rss after gandhis assassination and then written a critical letter to rss chief m s golwalkar the article said patel was responsible for development of gujarat and was instrumental in reconstructing the historic somnath temple despite