Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has slammed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre for its decision to remove former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s name from the India-US Fulbright scholarship programme and said that the move indicates the vindictiveness of the present dispensation at the Centre.
Terming the move as unfortunate and uncalled for, Gogoi said the present dispensation at the Centre is attempting to replace Nehru’s domestic and foreign policy legacy with its own.
“The decision to shed Nehru’s name from the scholarship programme that benefited tens of thousands of students is really unfortunate and uncalled for. Is the present dispensation trying to relegate Nehru’s contribution in laying the foundation of modern India and his rich domestic and foreign policy legacy to the backburner and replacing them with its ownIJ Is the Centre trying to rewrite history by removing the icons of our freedom struggleIJ” he retorted.
The Assam Chief Minister further said that the NDA Government at the Centre had earlier taken retrogressive steps in discontinuing the postage stamps on former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and belittling their contributions to make modern India. “All the decisions expose the vindictive attitude and narrow mindset of the present Central Government,” Gogoi said.