Launching a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said his administration was an entity “operated by angry men” and “led by communal forces.”
The government’s objective, she charged at a Congress function to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru here, was to “destroy his [Nehru’s] legacy” by targeting the secular fabric of India.
“His [Nehru’s] vision was liberal, democratic and aimed at the creation and consolidation of a united India,” Ms. Gandhi said while addressing thousands of Congress activists at the Talkatora stadium.
“But the very idea of India that Pandit Nehru had in his heart and even succeeded in forging in just 17 years as its Prime Minister is now under attack. Every Congress worker must unite and ensure that we fight all those divisive forces, bearing different colours and hues, tooth and nail to preserve the secular ideology that was Nehru's and was Nehru himself,” Ms. Gandhi said, invoking Nehruvian Nationalism.
“There is perhaps no field that he did not contribute to, no problem of the country that he did not try to find a solution for given his tremendous energy which aimed to forge a new united nation,” Ms. Gandhi.
Nehru’s contributions
Earlier, speaking at the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Talkatora Stadium here, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said: “There is perhaps no field that he did not contribute to, no problem of the country that he did not try to find a solution for given his tremendous energy which aimed to forge a new united nation,” Ms. Gandhi said. “If it wasn’t for him, it wouldn’t have been possible to launch the Chandrayaan and Mangalyan in space,” she added.
In his address, Mr. Rahul Gandhi alleged: “Today, the angry people who run the country want to ban English to promote Hindi.”
“On the one hand, they pick up brooms so that they can have photo-ops while on the other they spread venom in the form of communal hatred. Only the Congress can fight and defeat the hatemongers running the country these days,” he added.
Both his mother and Mr. Gandhi accepted that the 129-year-old Congress was currently facing a crisis but insisted that the grand old party would bounce back.
“If he [Nehru] was alive, he would have asked us to go to the people, to establish a better connection with them and to strengthen the organisation. But let our critics know that our party has existed for over a hundred years and will continue to since we take inspiration from our forefathers,” Ms. Gandhi said.
