New Delhi: The Congress hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, alleging that defamation of Jawaharlal Nehru and minimum democratic governance was his model. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said PM Modi has an "obsession" with Nehru as he invokes the country's first prime minister to distract the nation's attention from his "own failures" and current challenges on which he maintains a "complete silence".
The Congress attack on the prime minister came a day after Modi attacked the party during the debate on the 'Glorious 75-year journey of India's Constitution'. "It was the famous French philosopher Voltaire who had first said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him. For our self-anointed divinity -- if Nehru had not existed -- it would have been necessary to invent him," Ramesh said.
The Congress leader asked what would the prime minister do without Nehru, for whom he has a pathological obsession. "Nehru is necessary to distract the nation's attention from his own failures. Nehru is necessary to divert the nation's attention from current challenges on which he maintains a complete silence," Ramesh said. He also said that Nehru was necessary to deny the nation's many achievements before May 2014.
In another post on X, Ramesh said, "In his rant in the Lok Sabha yesterday, the PM attacked Nehru on the First Amendment to the Constitution of India -- which was carried out with effect from June 18th, 1951." Explaining why this amendment was brought, the Congress leader said, it was carried out for three reasons.
"One, to deal with communal propaganda at a most sensitive time. Two, to protect Zamindari abolition laws that were being struck down by the courts. Three, to protect reservations in education and employment for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and OBCs that had been rejected by the courts" he said.
A select committee, in which Nehru, Rajagopalchari, and Ambedkar were among the members, examined the Bill in detail, Ramesh said, noting that even after the panel tabled its report, Nehru listened to his critics and modified his stance.
"Earlier on July 3, 1950, Sardar Patel had written to Nehru on the need for restrictions on freedom of speech, expressing his frustration with people like Syama Prasad Mookerjee. This letter reveals that Sardar Patel himself would have supported the First Amendment had he been alive.
"Granville Austin's masterly Working a Democratic Constitution tells the full story of the amendments carried out till 1980. It is too much to expect of MAs in Entire Political Science or his cheerleaders to have read it?" Ramesh posed while sharing the letter in his X post.
Prime Minister Modi Saturday accused the Congress of repeatedly mutilating the Constitution, having "tasted blood" in its "greed" for power, as he asserted that his government's policies and decisions since 2014 have been aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.
