Why remembering Nehru is not the answer to Modi’s BJP
2 years, 7 months ago

Why remembering Nehru is not the answer to Modi’s BJP

Firstpost  

Attempts are often made by Nehru’s admirers, generally highly educated people, to correct public perception about him. He may have built quite a few of our national institutions from scratch, but Nehru is in today’s national common sense the other of substantive democracy. Nehru is the tallest symbol of the old order, which people believe did not allow ‘real’ democracy to flourish. And as the culture of high command grew from the times of Indira Gandhi, Congress workers focused on Nehru and ignored leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lokmanya Tilak and Rajendra Prasad.

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History of this topic

Congress didn't accept their own Constitution, let alone the country's: PM Modi
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Congress didn't accept their own Constitution, let alone the country's: PM Modi

India Today  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the Congress on Saturday, accusing the grand old party of disrespecting not only the Indian Constitution but also its own internal democratic processes. Participating in the special discussion on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, PM Modi alleged that the Congress sidelined democratic sentiment within the party to favour Jawaharlal Nehru as …

Book Review: In ‘Nehru’s India’, Aditya Mukherjee Counters False Narratives About India’s First Prime Minister
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Book Review: In ‘Nehru’s India’, Aditya Mukherjee Counters False Narratives About India’s First Prime Minister

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 10, 2024 22:30 IST - 9 MINS READ At a time when the forces of Hindutva are relentlessly denigrating Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the freedom of our country and the first 17 years of nation-building in independent India, the historian Aditya Mukherjee brings welcome clarification to the debate largely by citing Nehru’s own words and expanding on …

A mandate for Constitution and consensus
9 months, 3 weeks ago

A mandate for Constitution and consensus

New Indian Express  

Some are destroyed by defeat, and some are made small and mean by victory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi created history by becoming the second political leader after Jawaharlal Nehru to be sworn in as prime minister of the world’s largest democracy for a third consecutive term. While the Congress under Nehru won the three Lok Sabha elections in 1952, 1957 …

'Nehru Thought Indians Are Lazy, Indira Assessed Congress Correctly’: PM Modi Tears Into Congress
1 year, 1 month ago

'Nehru Thought Indians Are Lazy, Indira Assessed Congress Correctly’: PM Modi Tears Into Congress

ABP News  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the Lok Sabha on Monday, accused the Congress of perpetuating a mindset that mistrusted the country's capability, considering itself rulers and the public as inferior. Reading excerpts from Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi's past statements, Modi stated: "It means that Nehru ji thought Indians were lazy and less intelligent. Listen to the audio here: #WATCH …

PM Modi quotes speeches by Nehru, Indira says congress leaders had 'no faith' in Indians
1 year, 1 month ago

PM Modi quotes speeches by Nehru, Indira says congress leaders had 'no faith' in Indians

New Indian Express  

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made repeated attacks on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his speech in the Lok Sabha, claiming that the Congress leader thought Indians were lazy and of low intelligence. Modi's nearly 100-minute speech was laced with sharp attacks on the Congress and the Gandhi family, and he said the party "never …

Congress thinking revolves around Nehru-Gandhi family alone, PM Modi recognised everyone: BJP
1 year, 7 months ago

Congress thinking revolves around Nehru-Gandhi family alone, PM Modi recognised everyone: BJP

Firstpost  

The Congress had earlier alleged that Modi has a single-point agenda of “denying, distorting, defaming and destroying” the Nehruvian legacy. Hitting back at the Congress for its criticism of the change of the name of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the BJP on Wednesday said that the Congress thought process revolves around the Nehru-Gandhi family alone while Prime Minister Narendra …

PM Modi made India strong, cannot be compared with Nehru: Karnataka CM
2 years, 10 months ago

PM Modi made India strong, cannot be compared with Nehru: Karnataka CM

Firstpost  

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday asserted that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot be compared, as he praised the incumbent for taking strong actions on border issues and on matters concerning the nation’s unity and integrity, compared to the former. Reacting to Siddaramaiah’s comments, Bommai on Saturday said, there cannot be …

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay | Nehru, Ambedkar and the BJP: Revisiting of history?
2 years, 11 months ago

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay | Nehru, Ambedkar and the BJP: Revisiting of history?

Deccan Chronicle  

Everyone knows that April 14 is Ambedkar Jayanti, the birth anniversary of B.R. Further, the decision to inaugurate the new “expanded” museum that will not be “exclusive” for Nehru’s memory has been fixed for April 14 after rejecting two other dates considered by the government — December 25 and January 26, the first being Atal Behari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary and …

The great Nehruvian myth-making: How Nehru wasn’t that secular, humanist and democrat as made out to be
3 years ago

The great Nehruvian myth-making: How Nehru wasn’t that secular, humanist and democrat as made out to be

Firstpost  

Acharya Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani was close to Jawaharlal Nehru at the time of Independence. MC Chagla, noted jurist and Nehru’s Cabinet colleague, wrote in his memoirs Roses in December how Nehru showed “great strength and courage in getting the Hindu Reform Bill passed, but he accepted the policy of laissez faire where the Muslims and other minorities were concerned”. He …

Nehru talked of panchayats as if they were bureaucracies, imagining them as elected civil servants rather than political leaders
3 years ago

Nehru talked of panchayats as if they were bureaucracies, imagining them as elected civil servants rather than political leaders

The Hindu  

Jawaharlal Nehru restlessly sought to provide Indian democracy with a firm and unshakeable base. Trained to govern Nehru claimed to “want real power to be in the hands of the people in villages and districts and states” but that “they must first understand and be trained in the principles of governance and then play an active role in governing the …

‘Had Sardar Patel not died in 1950, he would have found it difficult to work with Nehru for much longer’
3 years, 3 months ago

‘Had Sardar Patel not died in 1950, he would have found it difficult to work with Nehru for much longer’

Firstpost  

‘It was Patel’s loyalty towards Gandhi that made him work with Nehru. Otherwise, his problem with Nehru was almost the same as Jinnah’s problems with Nehru,’ say Adeel Hussain and Tripurdaman Singh, authors of a new book on Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru would always remain central to any credible discussion and discourse on modern India. In an exclusive interaction with Firstpost, …

Jawaharlal Nehru's Idea of Religion, Equation With Jinnah & Vision for India
3 years, 4 months ago

Jawaharlal Nehru's Idea of Religion, Equation With Jinnah & Vision for India

The Quint  

Adeel: There was genuine respect that Nehru had as he respected everybody from that generation of Indian leaders. I think that disagreements, and there were many disagreements primarily came from the time when Nehru tried to understand the problems of Indian Muslims through his specific lens which of course had instances of specific secularism and socialism and he tried to …

Vajpayee and Advani were inherently Nehruvian, but Modi is different, says Jairam Ramesh
3 years, 5 months ago

Vajpayee and Advani were inherently Nehruvian, but Modi is different, says Jairam Ramesh

Firstpost  

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh talks about his new book on Sir Edwin Arnold and his poem ‘The Light of Asia’, and why he plans to write his next on Nehru. Unfortunately, the defenders of Nehru have frozen him in time.” In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Ramesh talks about his new book, The Light of Asia: The Poem that …

Aakar Patel | Nehru a model of modernity… Why his vision & legacy endures
4 years, 2 months ago

Aakar Patel | Nehru a model of modernity… Why his vision & legacy endures

Deccan Chronicle  

I was being interviewed for my book and was asked a question unrelated to it — Why does Hindutva hate Jawaharlal Nehru so much? Before Independence, Nehru wrote a series of works through which he aligned himself to India as a civilisational entity of the sort that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh also approves of. Some such examples are Bharat Heavy …

Why Nehru deserves the flak he gets on his birth anniversary and every other day — and how Sonia and Rahul are to blame
4 years, 4 months ago

Why Nehru deserves the flak he gets on his birth anniversary and every other day — and how Sonia and Rahul are to blame

Op India  

It’s Nov 14, the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. And Nehru’s great grandson is leading Nehru’s party and asking for votes in Nehru’s name. In which case, we should all come together and look at Nehru just as another towering figure in India’s long history. Today, Jawaharlal Nehru stands apart from the pantheon of independence era leaders and heroes : …

Ramachandra Guha says Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Rahul Gandhi, likens Sonia to Mughal dynasts living aloof from reality – Firstpost
5 years, 2 months ago

Ramachandra Guha says Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Rahul Gandhi, likens Sonia to Mughal dynasts living aloof from reality – Firstpost

Firstpost  

Kozhikode: A “fifth-generation dynast” Rahul Gandhi has no chance in Indian politics against a “hard-working and self-made” Narendra Modi, and Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing the the Congress leader to Parliament, historian Ramachandra Guha said here on Friday. If you Malayalis make the mistake of re-electing Rahul Gandhi in 2024 too, you are merely handing over an advantage …

Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Rahul Gandhi, says Historian Ramachandra Guha
5 years, 2 months ago

Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Rahul Gandhi, says Historian Ramachandra Guha

India TV News  

A "fifth-generation dynast" Rahul Gandhi has no chance in Indian politics against a "hard-working and self-made" Narendra Modi, and Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing the the Congress leader to Parliament, historian Ramachandra Guha said here on Friday. If you Malyalis make the mistake of re-electing Rahul Gandhi in 2024 too, you are merely handing over an advantage to …

The greatest Indian after the Mahatma? Why Gandhi chose Nehru to lead India
6 years, 4 months ago

The greatest Indian after the Mahatma? Why Gandhi chose Nehru to lead India

Deccan Chronicle  

In bravery, he is not to be surpassed. He is a knight sans peur, sans reproche — the nation is safe in his hands.” So spoke Mahatma Gandhi on October 3, 1929, soon after 40-year-old Jawaharlal Nehru was elected president of the Indian National Congress, whose session was due to be held in Lahore two months later. following the December …

Opinion | The Bharatiya Janata Party’s search for a hero
6 years, 4 months ago

Opinion | The Bharatiya Janata Party’s search for a hero

Live Mint  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept at least one of the promises he had made in the run up to the 2014 parliamentary elections—of installing in Gujarat what will briefly be the world’s tallest statue, honouring one of the state’s illustrious leaders, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister. There is also the speculation, popular within circles close to the …

Why Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the BJP’s Pandit Nehru: Notes from a reporter’s diary
6 years, 7 months ago

Why Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the BJP’s Pandit Nehru: Notes from a reporter’s diary

Hindustan Times  

A Ratna of Bharat is no more. India’s former prime minister and one of the country’s most-loved and respected leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, died on Thursday evening. At Minar- e- Pakistan “Kya chal raha hai, partner?” What’s up, asked Atal ji, seeking me out of a crowd of journalists at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan on February 21, 1999. It has a valid …

Manmohan Singh on Atal Bihari Vajpayee: ‘He shared Nehru’s vision of India’
6 years, 7 months ago

Manmohan Singh on Atal Bihari Vajpayee: ‘He shared Nehru’s vision of India’

The Hindu  

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood among the tallest leaders of modern India, his successor Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said in an interview. Dr. Singh said both he and Mr. Vajpayee carried forward each other’s policies on economic liberalisation and ties with the U.S. and Pakistan. You spoke about Mr. Vajpayee taking forward your legacy of economic liberalisation, …

Far & Near: A heartless idea of India
7 years, 1 month ago

Far & Near: A heartless idea of India

Deccan Chronicle  

New India” is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s copyright. The PM in all honesty can’t point to employment or self-employment gains flowing from the much-hyped official programmes such as Skill India, Stand Up India, or the BHIM app spinning out processes that lead to gainful work for the youth in keeping with the aspirations of our times, which Mr Modi’s rhetorical …

Indira's legacy: A role model for Modi?
7 years, 5 months ago

Indira's legacy: A role model for Modi?

Deccan Chronicle  

One of the delightful ironies of the right-wing BJP’s state of mind is that while its leaders hate India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, they admire, even adore, his daughter Indira Gandhi, the country’s third Prime Minister, who was tragically assassinated by her bodyguards 33 years ago. It seems one reason why Mr Vajpayee had to look to Nehru as …

Remembering Motilal Nehru, founder of the Nehru-Gandhi family
8 years, 1 month ago

Remembering Motilal Nehru, founder of the Nehru-Gandhi family

India Today  

Motitlal Nehru was one of the key figures of Indian politics and also in the history of the Indian National Congress. An important figure in the Indian freedom struggle, he was the father of India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and grandfather of Indira Gandhi, the first woman PM of India. His father was a Kotwal in Delhi during …

Remembering Jawaharlal Nehru's political legacy
8 years, 4 months ago

Remembering Jawaharlal Nehru's political legacy

Deccan Chronicle  

Chennai: In the heat and dust kicked up by the great Indian demonetisation of two high value rupee currencies from the midnight of November 8, it seems all the more relevant to dwell deep into the continued relevance of the legacy of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Ninan termed the demonetisation as a 'Socialist Bonanza' considering that till Saturday …

Sonia Gandhi says Constitution's ideals and principles under threat
9 years, 4 months ago

Sonia Gandhi says Constitution's ideals and principles under threat

India TV News  

New Delhi: Giving a glimpse into what the winter session of Parliament is going to be, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today targeted the government on issue of intolerance alleging that ideals and principles of the Constitution were under threat and being attacked deliberately. Insisting that whatever being witnessed over the past few months was "totally against the principles" of the …

Narendra Modi & Jawaharlal Nehru
9 years, 4 months ago

Narendra Modi & Jawaharlal Nehru

The Hindu  

On his visit to England, Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi’s praise of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, came as a surprise. Predictably, many in the Congress party have >accused Mr. Modi of selectively praising Nehru on the international stage while pointedly ignoring him at home. Nehru’s idea of India — privileging citizenry, secularism and rationalism — is of course at …

Despite differences, no one can doubt Nehru’s intention: Rajnath
9 years, 4 months ago

Despite differences, no one can doubt Nehru’s intention: Rajnath

The Hindu  

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday paid glowing tributes to the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, saying despite ideological differences, no one can doubt his intention to work for the welfare of people and nation building. Mr. Singh, a veteran BJP leader, said he may not see Nehru, a Congressman, in the “political mirror” but could always see him …

The politics of iconography
9 years, 6 months ago

The politics of iconography

The Hindu  

The list is exhaustive and eclectic at first glance. “It senses that many people believe the Congress has over-projected the family, particularly Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.” “Once the ‘bias’ in favour of the Nehru-Gandhi family is hinted at, it does not matter from which part of the ideological spectrum the present government claims icons, as it can be seen …

Nehru Succumbed to the “Temptation” of “Military Weakness”
9 years, 10 months ago

Nehru Succumbed to the “Temptation” of “Military Weakness”

The Quint  

Sporadic boundary clashes erupted into full-blown war in October 1962. India’s troops, poorly trained and ill-equipped for the climate and terrain, fought hard but couldn’t compete with the better-organized Chinese, who nevertheless beat a hasty retreat just as America began rallying to India’s defense. ‘People have not been able to move on from the idea of the 1962 loss, which …

Congress accuses Modi government over Netaji snooping-India TV News
9 years, 11 months ago

Congress accuses Modi government over Netaji snooping-India TV News

India TV News  

New Delhi: In the wake of de-classified intelligence documents indicating that then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru ordered intensive surveillance on the family of Subhas Chandra Bose, the Congress on Friday attacked the Narendra Modi government for "distorting" history through a "sinister propaganda of selective leaks". Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "The anti-Nehruvism of the ruling BJP government.seems to have …

Jawaharlal Nehru and his conflicts with Congress party
10 years, 4 months ago

Jawaharlal Nehru and his conflicts with Congress party

The Hindu  

Anniversaries have a habit of confronting us with uncomfortable contrasts. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, would have been 125 years old this year; the state that Nehru saw through its first years of independence is now ruled by forces he found abhorrent: supporters of a narrow-minded, exclusionary definition of national belonging, accompanied by crude capitalist profiteering and …

A vision for India: Nehru’s idea of modern nationhood
10 years, 4 months ago

A vision for India: Nehru’s idea of modern nationhood

The Hindu  

THE FOUR KEY DIMENSIONS OF India’s modern nationhood, as conceived and implemented by Jawaharlal Nehru, were democracy, secularism, socialism and non-alignment. Thus, by insisting on a democratic polity and “nurturing it like a mother nurtures her child”, as Congress president Sonia Gandhi remarked at Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary celebration, Nehru established the democratic ethos, the democratic institutions and the democratic …

Nehru & idea of India
10 years, 4 months ago

Nehru & idea of India

Deccan Chronicle  

With television, the Internet and our smartphones we have daily sightings of our leaders. In the context of what Jawaharlal Nehru achieved, however, I consider both criticisms secondary, because his contributions to India are so fundamental that they have defined what our country is today. Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn’t live for too long after August 15, 1947; …

Epistolary exchanges: A compilation of Jawaharlal Nehru's letters to his chief ministers
10 years, 4 months ago

Epistolary exchanges: A compilation of Jawaharlal Nehru's letters to his chief ministers

Hindustan Times  

A new compilation of Jawaharlal Nehru's letters to his chief ministers over a 16-year period reveals his views on democracy, the RSS, the communists, and yes, Vallabhbhai Patel too. Madhav Khosla, author of Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to his Chief Ministers The current Indian government has abolished the planning commission. I think Nehru understood politics too well …

Be critical of Nehru's policies, not his persona
10 years, 4 months ago

Be critical of Nehru's policies, not his persona

Hindustan Times  

Slowly but surely, an image of the man emerged – a man gifted with language, a passionate nationalist, a modernist beyond compare, a world citizen, a scholar, a man of excellent Kashmiri pandit ancestry. I recall reading how Nehru could never really get over the fact that the China, despite agreeing to the principle of panchsheela, would so brazenly disregard …

Jawaharlal Nehru and his troubled legacy
10 years, 4 months ago

Jawaharlal Nehru and his troubled legacy

Live Mint  

Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution would have had a much longer life had not members of his family systematically tarnished it. That this position was supported by India’s fledgling entrepreneurs of the time only made Nehru’s claim to be a socialist”’ somewhat contrived. Nehru’s industrialization programme required a long gestation period which people, with a limited time horizon, found difficult to accept. …

'Congress-free India' not possible till Patel, Gandhi, Nehru remembered: Beni
10 years, 4 months ago

'Congress-free India' not possible till Patel, Gandhi, Nehru remembered: Beni

India TV News  

Lucknow: Senior Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a “Congress-free India” would not materialise as long as people continue to remember icons like Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Till the memories of these leaders remain among the people, the country cannot be free of Congress,” Verma told reporters here on the …

‘Govt. out to destroy Nehru’s legacy’
10 years, 4 months ago

‘Govt. out to destroy Nehru’s legacy’

The Hindu  

Launching a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said his administration was an entity “operated by angry men” and “led by communal forces.” The government’s objective, she charged at a Congress function to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru here, was to “destroy his legacy” by targeting the secular fabric of …

Indira's death anniversary: Congress attacks PM Modi
10 years, 5 months ago

Indira's death anniversary: Congress attacks PM Modi

India TV News  

Taking a jibe at BJP, he said Patel was a Congressman who as the then deputy prime minister and home minister had banned RSS, the ideological mentor of the ruling party. Refuting the allegations of Congress leaders, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of belittling the importance of any leader while stressing that Patel should be a …

Modi forced to borrow our icons: Congress
10 years, 5 months ago

Modi forced to borrow our icons: Congress

The Hindu  

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden invocation of Jawaharlal Nehru at an election rally in Haryana on Monday, the Congress said the BJP and the RSS had no icons of their own, and so had to borrow them. “The BJP and the RSS have no leader who participated in the freedom struggle and those that they claim indeed played …

Cleanliness lessons in curriculum: Modi invokes Nehru, Indira
10 years, 5 months ago

Cleanliness lessons in curriculum: Modi invokes Nehru, Indira

The Hindu  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday invoked the Congress’s biggest icons, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, while hitting out at the Congress for neglecting Nehru’s legacy. Campaigning for the Haryana Assembly election in Hisar on Monday, Mr. Modi said: “Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister, was Chacha Nehru to children and I would like that on November 14, his birth …

First Vajpayee, now Nehru: Is PM Modi channeling his inner Panditji?
10 years, 6 months ago

First Vajpayee, now Nehru: Is PM Modi channeling his inner Panditji?

Firstpost  

Other political leaders choose to put their icons on the pedestal. And now it appears he intends to outstrip two other leaders in particular: one, who he acknowledges as an inspiration by visiting him ahead of important events, namely the ailing and ageing party icon Atal Behari Vajpayee who is completely unaware of what is happening around him; and the …

Why Gandhi opted for Nehru and not Sardar Patel for PM ?
12 years, 5 months ago

Why Gandhi opted for Nehru and not Sardar Patel for PM ?

India TV News  

New Delhi: As Machiavelli wrote -" History is written by the victors". According to this official history, Jawahar Lal Nehru was elected as the first Prime minister of India and Sardar Patel became his deputy and it was all done purely on merit. It's not that the official history does not mention the emergence of Sardar Patel and not Jawahar …

Why Gandhi opted for Nehru and not Sardar Patel for PM ?
12 years, 5 months ago

Why Gandhi opted for Nehru and not Sardar Patel for PM ?

India TV News  

But Gandhi's decision proved too costly for the nation. Nehru's follies on Kashmir and China proved beyond doubt the fact that Gandhi committed a mistake in backing Nehru by showing utter disregard to overwhelming support from the majority of PCCs for Sardar Patel. Even two known critics of Sardar Patel conceded the point that Gandhi's decision to chose Nehru over …

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