Congress president Sonia Gandhi evoked Jawaharlal Nehru's championship of the secular and democratic cause at a two-day international conference to commemorate the first Prime Minister’s 125th anniversary that began on Monday in New Delhi. In an apparent bid to showcase the sphere of its political influence, the party harped on the presence of leaders from the Left, TMC and a few other non-NDA parties at the conference.
“Secularism was and remains more than an ideal, it is a compelling necessity for our country,” Gandhi said as she quoted Nehru to say he had promised to fight for it ‘to the last breath.’ In the run-up to the conference that has 55 international delegates from 12 countries, the Congress had sent invitations to most political parties in India except those who are BJP allies or sympathisers while stressing it wasn’t inviting Prime Minister Modi or his party.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) General Prakash Karat and Poliburo Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja – all from parties with which the Congress had a bitter parting in recent years were present at the occasion.
While Karat sat next to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Yechury and Raja were seen seated next to Banerjee in the front row among delegates and invitees.
Former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JD(U) President (and former NDA convvenor) Sharad Yadav, NCP General secretary D P Tripathi and RJD MP Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav attended the opening plenary of the conference.
Nehru admirer: Mamata
Leaders from SP, BSP, DMK, NC and PDP were, however, not present. Banerjee told journalists on the sidelines of the conference that she was a Nehru admirer but underplayed her presence at the event. So did Karat. Both TMC and the Left have expressed concern in the recent past over BJP’s rise in West Bengal.
In her opening address, Gandhi said “the whisper of knowledge about Nehru’s life and work has weakened in recent years in our country, downed out by misrepresentation and distortion” a reference to the recent attempts by political rivals to point out Nehru’s mistakes during his 17 years as PM. Elaborating on the remark, Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily later said: “There has been distortion of facts. Even in Patel’s case, people have tried to say they had differences. It was Patel who banned RSS. There are people who think they can shout and replace knowledge. That would be a disaster for the country.” Moily underlined the presence of a number of leaders from parties that are no longer Congress allies but stressed that the conference was not a political event.
Paying glowing tributes to Nehru as an international leader and champion of liberty, Gandhi said he was a synthesis of the best of East and West. “India’s democracy, which we take for granted today was Nehru’s greatest achievement and most enduring legacy,” she said
Rahul Gandhi, who leads the nine-member Congress delegation for the event will speak on Tuesday. Ambika Soni, Rajiv Satav, Ashok Tanwar and Sushmita Dev are among the others in the delegation. Meanwhile, a two-day conference on ‘Rethinking the Nehru Legacy: The Long Twentieth Century’ also began at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.
