Leaders of “secular” opposition parties have received invitations from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to attend an international conference — “Nehru’s world view and his legacy: democracy, inclusion and empowerment” — here on November 17 and 18. The invitees include the Janata Parivar members who are working towards a merger, the Left parties and breakaway factions of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
Efforts are on to invite leaders of regional parties that do not have an overtly communal agenda as well. This list excludes parties such as the Shiv Sena and the Shiriomani Akali Dal.
As the battle for the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru hots up ahead of the 125th birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister on Friday, the Congress clearly intends to make the conference not just a show of strength for non-BJP forces but also a showcasing of an ideology that is at odds with the world view of the Modi government. In any case, it has pointedly not invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the conference, citing the fact that it is a party, not a government, conference, and adding that all those invited must be those who believe in the Nehruvian world view.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now heads the national committee that was set up by the previous UPA government for a year-long celebration of the anniversary, has indicated the direction the BJP government’s festivities will take: the focus will be on projecting the country’s first Prime Minister merely as “Chacha Nehru” and declaring the 12 months as the “Year of Bal Swachhta.”
The letter sent out by the Congress describes Nehru as “a global statesman, institution builder and profound humanist,” and points out that as Prime Minister, he “laid the foundations of modern India, a democracy built on secular ideals.” It continues by stressing that he “combined compassion for the poor and disadvantaged with belief in the power of science and technology to mould a modern nation.”
