Politics took centre stage at a Congress function on the eve of the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru on Thursday as both party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of spreading the “poison” of communalism and asking party men to fight those out to demolish Nehru’s “liberal India”.
The Congress has already set the stage for turning Nehru’s birth anniversary celebrations into an exercise to unite anti-BJP forces. The party has invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD president lalu Prasad and leaders of the left parties to attend a two-day international seminar in Delhi on November 17-18 to mark the celebrations.
The Congress has not invited Modi, who it accuses of appropriating the legacy of freedom movement leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Sardar Patel.
Without naming Modi, Rahul said that “angry” people are running the country now and that the Government’s cleanliness drive is just an excuse for providing “photo opportunities”.
“These days, the foundation of love and brotherhood is being demolished. On the one hand, houses are being painted and roads are being cleaned, snaps are being taken. Photo opportunities are happening. On the other hand, poison is being spread. The very foundations are being weakened,” Rahul said.
In her concluding speech, party chief Sonia Gandhi said had Nehru been alive, he would have asked all Congressmen to fight communalism of all hues by becoming a “valiant secular soldier” for protecting the soul of India.
“Massive attempts are on to destroy the vision of Nehru, the way he used to look at India. The forces which are doing this are targeting not only his persona but also his ideology, his vision, his life-long contributions and struggle,” she said.
Rahul, whose leadership is being question from within the Congress itself, confessed to the party men that mistakes might have been made. “We have definitely committed mistakes. But there is no fault with our ideology...Congress is an organisation of love and brotherhood. Today people with anger are running the country. They say, do away with English. We should work only in Hindi. Had we done this after Independence, our youths would not have been able to go to IITs, IIMs and foreign countries,” he said in the presence of former PM Manmohan Singh and former Delhi CM
Sheila Dikshit.
While Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the Congress has shown its “small-heartedness” by not inviting Modi for the birth anniversary celebrations, HRD Minister Smriti Irani slammed the comments of Congress vice-president on the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan.
BJP attacked Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against the Prime Minister on “Swachchh Bharat” and said Modi is only trying to accomplish Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams of a clean India by connecting people with it to make it a mass movement. The ruling party also attacked the Gandhi scion for his remarks relating to Hindi saying he has no right to insult Hindi.
“The Congress is trying to use Nehru’s birth anniversary to play its own politics. On this occasion where they had to take the pledge of uniting society and spreading brotherhood, they for their political gains have done the work of dividing society. It is the Congress which is playing the politics of hatred and not BJP,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Newly-inducted Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav, said Gandhi’s Congress-led UPA ruled the country for the last ten years but did nothing for eradicating the menace of open defecation and making the country clean.