New Delhi: The Congress on Monday paid rich tributes to the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his birth anniversary, saying 21st century India cannot be imagined without his tremendous contribution and that his relevance has increased after 2014.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal, among others, offered floral tributes at Nehru’s memorial Shanti Van in New Delhi.
In a tweet in Hindi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi quoted Nehru’s lines — “Who is Bharat Mata? The people of India spread across its vast land matter the most. Mother India is this crores and crores of people.”
“With these democratic, progressive and secular values ??of Pandit Nehru in my heart, I am walking to protect ‘Mother India’ of ‘Hind Ke Jawahar’,” Gandhi said referring to his Kanyakumari to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also paid tributes to Nehru and posted a quote of the former prime minister on Twitter in which he had said, “We have to build such a free great India where all her children can live.”
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor claimed that at the ceremony to pay tributes to Nehru at Parliament’s central hall no central minister or “BJP notable” was present.
“Performed pushparchana before the portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru ji in the Central Hall of Parliament this morning, along with Speaker @ombirlakota, Smt Sonia Gandhi, M. @kharge and fifteen @INCIndia leaders. No Central Minister or other BJP notable was present. Bipartisanship extinct!?” Tharoor tweeted.
Several party leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Venugopal, paid glowing tributes on social media to the Congress stalwart.
Born in 1889, Nehru remains India’s longest-serving prime minister. He was prime minister between August 1947 and May 1964. He passed away on May 27, 1964.
In a tweet, Congress president Kharge said, “Pandit Nehru — the maker of modern India. 21st India cannot be imagined without his tremendous contribution.”
“A champion of democracy, his progressive thoughts furthered India’s social, political and economic development, despite the challenges. My humble homage to a true patriot,” he said.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh noted that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is in Hingoli district and coincidentally a book on Nehru in Marathi has just come out in addition to the one in English and Hindi.
“(Mo)Distorians will continue to distort, defame and denigrate but Nehru continues to inspire and his relevance has only increased after 2014,” Ramesh said on Twitter in an apparent reference to the Narendra Modi government coming to power at the Centre.
He said 600 copies of Nehru’s iconic, The Discovery of India, will be distributed to Yatris Monday.
The copies were brought by a volunteer who drove all the way from Delhi for 23 hours straight at a very short notice, he said.
The Congress, from its official Twitter handle, said, “First PM of India, Pt. Nehru was a social democrat who coveted a welfare state.”
“He was a humanist-secularist who sought national development on all fronts including agriculture & science. Today on his birth anniversary, we celebrate his endearing legacy,” the party said.
