Anxious Congress keeps PM out of Nehru meet

“We have invited all those who truly believe in democracy and Nehru’s ideals”

November 12, 2014 02:03 am | Updated November 16, 2021 04:45 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

It had grand plans to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru’s when it was in power. Out of power now, the Congress fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will either appropriate the first Prime Minister or attempt to reduce him to a mere children’s icon.

The party announced on Monday that neither Mr. Modi nor any of his party colleagues had been invited to a two-day international conference it was organising on Nehru here on November 17 and 18.

Sources said the invitations were sent out in August-end. But observers said if the decision to keep out Mr. Modi was intended to snub him, it did not matter as the Prime Minister had embarked on a 10-day foreign tour beginning Tuesday. The conference, which wants to underline Nehru’s vision as a tolerant and democratic world leader, will be attended by 55 international leaders, mostly from Africa and Asia, Congress sources said.

“Invitations were sent by the Congress president to a select group of world leaders,” said Congress leader and convener of the organising committee of the conference, Anand Sharma. “We have not given any invitation to the Prime Minister. We have invited all those who truly believe in democracy and the ideals of Nehru,” he said.

The Modi government, on its part, had confined the initial commemoration to observing a children’s cleanliness year and promoting scientific temper among children, sources said. The move has given rise to the fear that the government is trying to reduce Nehru to a children’s icon. “This government is trying to usurp our leaders without subscribing to their values. [Mahatma] Gandhi isn’t just about cleanliness. Nehru was an intellectual, a statesman and a world leader. He was too big. No force or individual can dwarf him. I am waiting to hear a true tribute from Modi to Nehru,” Mr. Sharma told The Hindu .

Modi heads panel on Nehru anniversary commemoration

Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads the reconstituted government committee for the year-long project to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. The committee held its meeting on November 1.

“The meeting was business-like. The PM chaired the meeting and said he had two suggestions: to extend the Clean India drive to school and anganwadis and to inculcate scientific temper among children,” a member of the committee revealed.

He said the date for the next meeting had not yet been announced. Constitutional expert Subhash C. Kashyap, who is also on the committee, revealed that the government had “certain long-term plans” which extended to involving the Human Resource Development and Health Ministries in the year-long ‘Bal Swachhta Abhiyaan.’

The first series of events will start on November 14 on Nehru’s birth anniversary and conclude on November 19, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

The original committee was formed last year when the United Progressive Alliance was in power. The government had earmarked Rs. 100 crore for the project. Plans for the year-long commemoration included a coin and a stamp on Nehru and various chairs in universities, sources said. The Congress had also planned a film on Nehru’s life on the lines of Richard Attenborough’s biopic Gandhi . A Congress leader said it would now have to be shelved for lack of funds.

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