Thursday, April 14 2005 22:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Pune: In a veiled disapproval of the attack by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) chief K S Sudarshan on him and his foster son-in-law, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Apr 14, 2005) indicated he was pained by the unbridled criticism.

In his first reaction to the criticism by Sudarshan, Vajpayee, in his inimitable style, utilised the occasion of a speech at a function to celebrate 50 years of 'Geet Ramayan' to express his unhappiness over the attack.

"We are living in such times that it is difficult to avoid being maligned. Even if Lord Ram had taken birth in these times, he too would not have escaped being maligned.

"I do not fear death, but I fear getting a bad name," Vajpayee said quoting a couplet from 'Ramayana'.

He was participating in the golden jubilee celebrations of 'Geet Ramayan', a poetic composition on the life of Lord Ram written by Marathi litterateur G D Madgulkar, music for which was composed by Sudhir Phadke.

Earlier in the day before leaving for Pune, BJP chief L K Advani met Vajpayee at his residence and is understood to have discussed the RSS chief's attack on the former Prime Minister in an interview to a television channel.

The immensely popular musical composition having 56 songs was broadcast weekly between April 1, 1955 and April 19, 1956 on All India Radio, Pune.

The broadcast struck such an emotional chord with the people that radio sets were garlanded when the programme was on air.

The compositions by Madgulkar were set to tune by Phadke and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Vasantrao Deshpande, Gajanan Watve, Malati Pande, Manik Verma, Lalita Phadke among others.