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The Congress on Sunday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, charging that defamation of Jawaharlal Nehru and minimum democratic governance was his model. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Modi has an "obsession" with Nehru as he invokes him to distract the nation's attention from his own failures and current challenges on which he maintains a complete silence. The Congress attack on the prime minister came a day after he attacked the party during the debate on the 'Glorious 75 year journey of India's Constitution'. "It was the famous French philosopher Voltaire who had first said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.For our self-anointed divinity - if Nehru had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him," Ramesh said. The Congress leader asked what would the prime minister do without Nehru, for whom he has a pathological obsession? "Nehru is necessary to distract the nation's attention from His own failures.
Both detractors and admirers of Jawaharlal Nehru are living in his shadow and, since 2014, the story is one of governance through maximum criticism of the country's first prime minister, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday. Speaking at the launch of writer-scholar Aditya Mukherjee's "Nehru's India", the Congress general secretary said one of the biggest takeaways from the book was that "not only the idea of India but the idea of Nehru itself needs to be defended". "...needs to be defended from its old critics, from its new critics, and it has to be reinterpreted for a changing India. I just want to say that we all live in the shadow of Nehru. Many of us have assimilated Nehru and many of us contest Nehru. And even those who contest Nehru cannot run away from the shadow of Nehru," the Rajya Sabha MP said. The book, published by Penguin, focuses on Nehru's understanding of history and India's cultural past while offering a window into his understanding of communalis
Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) Society, on Sunday said he has written to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to allow physical or digit access to private papers related to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that are in her possession. Kadri, 56, who teaches history at a local college in Ahmedabad, said, he has been vocal in the AGM meetings of the PMML Society -- formerly Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) -- for "reclaiming" the papers that were taken back by Gandhi several years ago. Nehru, India's first prime minister, lived at Teen Murti Bhawan in central Delhi, which after his death became the NMML, housing a rich collection of books and rare records. Kadri said that "51 boxes" carrying records related to Nehru's private papers were taken back by Gandhi. In his letter, dated September 9, to the senior Congress leader, he has said," Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ji and his father, Pandit Motilal Nehru ji, have left behind significant recor
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday broke the record of his immediate predecessor Manmohan Singh by hoisting the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort for the 11th consecutive time. With this, Modi has become the prime minister to hoist the tricolour for the third highest time. The record lies with first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who did the honours 17 times from 1947 to 1964. Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi holds the record of hoisting the national flag for the second highest time. She did so 16 times, just one short of her father's record. However, this was done in two different stints from 1966-1977 and 1980-1984. Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government for 10 years, hoisted the national flag 10 times between 2004 and 2014. Of India's 15 prime ministers, Gulzarilal Nanda and Chandra Shekhar were the only ones who did not get a chance to hoist the tricolour even once. Chandra Shekhar, who became the first prime minister of I
NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said Jawaharlal Nehru had a vision for modern India and his leadership was required to keep the country united post-partition. Speaking at a book release function here, Pawar said country's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was an able administrator and worked for farmers and the working class. Patel's contribution to uniting the country post-independence was immense as he played a key role in persuading princely states to integrate into the Union of India. "Mahatma Gandhi knew the potential of both the leaders (Nehru and Patel) and their leadership qualities. Nehru's vision of modern India was necessary for the country's progress and development. He had the vision to take the country on the world's centre stage. His leadership was required to keep the country united post-partition," the veteran leader said. Pawar noted the contribution of Dr B R Ambedkar in drafting the Constitution of India and his work in the field of ...
Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay Sunday said Narendra Modi might be taking oath as prime minister for a third term, but he does not have a mandate like Jawaharlal Nehru, the only other PM to have three consecutive terms, had. Bandyopadhyay, who was on Saturday re-elected as the leader of the TMC in Lok Sabha, also said the opposition will play a positive role in the functioning of parliament. "People have given some opinion in his (PM Modi) favour... But it is not like Nehru ji (who) had the verdict behind him," he said. Bandyopadhyay said the government is going to take an oath on Sunday "which is okay" according to democratic process but "our leader Mamata Banerjee has declared yesterday this government cannot last long". Nehru was sworn in as the prime minister for the third time in 1962, when the Congress had won 361 seats, 10 down from the Lok Sabha polls of 1957. Asked about the role the Opposition, rejuvenated by its gains in this election, would play in the ..
Some newly elected MPs, who are likely to be sworn-in as Union Ministers in the third NDA government on Sunday, have been called for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence here at 11.30 am. Sources said a top BJP functionary has called the BJP MPs for the meeting without disclosing the purpose. It is believed they are likely to be appointed as union ministers this evening, they said. Meanwhile, TDP MP Jayadev Galla, wrote on 'X' that party MP Ram Mohan Naidu will take oath as a cabinet minister and another MP Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani will be made minister of state in the new ministry. Modi is set to take oath on Sunday for a third straight term as the head of a coalition government after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own. The 73-year-old will be equalling the feat of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who won in 1952, 1957 and 1962 general elections. Leaders from India's neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region are among th