Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Friday alleged that the project to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru is the main objective of the ruling dispensation not just to "erase him" but to "destroy" his social and political foundations.
Addressing an event to launch the Nehru Centre India at Jawahar Bhawan, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson claimed that a systematic attempt is being made to denigrate, distort, demean and defame him, which was not acceptable.
She also said the sole objective of this is to not only diminish Nehru as a personality but also his universally recognised role in India's independence struggle and to demolish his legacy in a crude and self-serving attempt to rewrite history.
"Let there be no doubt whatsoever that the project to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru is the main objective of the ruling establishment today. Their goal is not just to erase him; it is actually to destroy the social, political, and economic foundations on which our nation has been founded and built," Gandhi said.
She noted that Nehru was the prime architect of the modern Indian nation-state, he had a steadfast belief in planned economic growth and a profound commitment to the development of scientific temper alongside the development of scientific and technological capabilities.
"To him, secularism -- in which he firmly believed -- meant above all the celebration of India's many diversities while strengthening its fundamental unity," she said.
Noting that his legacy continues to shape our everyday lives, the Congress leader said decades have gone by since his time, but he continues to serve as a beacon of light to millions of our countrymen and women.
"It is inevitable that such a monumental figure will have his life and work analysed and critiqued - and that is indeed as it should be," she observed.
Although the temptation to divorce him from his times and the challenges that he had to face and to look at him, devoid of the historical context in which a function has become quite widespread, Gandhi said.
"Yet, while we welcome ongoing analysis of his contributions, what is not acceptable is the systematic attempt being made to denigrate, distort, demean and defame him."
"The sole objective of this is to not only diminish him as a personality but also his universally recognised role in India's independence struggle and his early decades as a leader of an independent nation challenged by unprecedented problems, but it is also to demolish his multifaceted legacy in a crude and self-serving attempt to rewrite history," she said.
She said analysis is one thing, but deliberate mischief with what he said, what he wrote and what he did is another thing and is totally unacceptable.
According to Gandhi, those behind this belong to an ideology that had no role whatsoever in our freedom movement, that had no role whatsoever in the making of our Constitution, which they even burnt.
"It is an ideology that long ago fanned an atmosphere of hate that ultimately led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. His killers today continue to be glorified by its adherents. It is an ideology which has consistently rejected the ideals of our founding fathers. It is an ideology with a bigoted and viciously communal outlook. Its approach to nationhood is based on stoking prejudices of all kinds," she noted.
Observing that the road ahead is not easy, Gandhi said there is simply no option but to stand up and confront this project as we not only owe it to the memory of Jawaharlal Nehru and his comrades but also to ourselves and to the coming generations.
"The unapologetic and fierce defence of the Nehruvian legacy is not an act of nostalgia. It is a commitment to restoring India's constitutional promise, to safeguarding reason in the face of propaganda, and to ensuring that our republic remains modern and forward-looking. If we succeed, it will not only honour Jawaharlal Nehru's memory; it will ensure that the India he envisioned remains a reality," she said.
At a time when tolerance in public life is shrinking, when dissent is painted as disloyalty, and history is reduced to partisan combat, Nehru's example becomes even more vital, the Congress leader said.
She also lauded the launch of an archive on Nehru by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fundwhich was easily searchable and freely downloadable digital archive, even with a smartphone.
At present, it covers the hundred published volumes of his selected works, covering the period from 1903 till the day before he died, she said.
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