Sir — We live in an India of the present. India is now a free, secular democracy — and this is a strong enough reason for the common people to celebrate. People have the right to elect and oust Governments. On the other hand, politicians love to dig history. They do it particularly more so, when it suits their political purposes of the moment.
A few years ago, a group of people and politicians treated Jawaharlal Nehru as the enemy of Dalits, following a cartoon depicting Nehru whipping BR Ambedkar to get the Constitution written at the earliest. Now, there have been reports on the surveillance mounted by the Intelligence Bureau on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family members in the years that led to independence. It has been said that Nehru had ordered the snooping or that, at the very least, he knew about the surveillance but did nothing to stop it.
These are incidents of the past. Neither Ms Sonia Gandhi nor Mr Rahul Gandhi is responsible for the happenings. They need not answer questions that relate back to seven decades or so. In any case, the Congress is a near-dead party today. Any further damage to it will only mean that the ruling BJP will have a complete say in governance This is not good for democracy.