Congress should debate if Nehru was secular or not: Ravi Shankar

"India's first Prime Minister was a leading member of the Constituent Assembly along with Dr. Ambedkar and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad that had made the original preamble"

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad 

>A day after senior Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Government was not going to remove “secularism’’ from the Preamble of the Constitution, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday asked the Congress to debate if Jawaharlal Nehru was a “secular person or not’’, because as Prime Minister he was a leading member of the Constituent Assembly along with Dr. Ambedkar and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad that had made the original preamble.

“The constituent assembly which had eminent leaders as its members did not include socialist or secular in the original preamble in 1950. The Congress must reply to it if it believes that leading lights such as Pandit Nehru were secular or not,’’ Mr. Prasad said while talking to The Hindu .

As for the BJP, Mr. Prasad clarified, secular principle flows from the Indian ethos and “is a part of our proud cultural heritage and our DNA which reinforces the respect for each other’s state.’’

Seeking to play down the Preamble row, Mr. Prasad said the BJP “firmly believes in the secular principle. “When Prime Minister Narendra Modi says

Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas , it is being translated with action on the ground with inclusive development for all,’’ he added. He cited the example of Jan Dhan Yojna’ bank accounts which had brought nearly 11 crore people into the banking network, including all poor and underprivileged sections of the society from all religions.