NEW DELHI, Dec 15: The Congress party on Sunday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of defaming Jawaharlal Nehru and using him as a distraction from his own government’s failures. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Modi’s frequent references to Nehru were a sign of his “obsession” with the former prime minister, aimed at deflecting attention from current challenges.
Ramesh questioned what the prime minister would do without Nehru, adding that his attacks were intended to divert public focus from issues that Modi had failed to address. He said, “Nehru is necessary to distract the nation from his own failures and to deny the nation’s many achievements before May 2014.”
The Congress leader also compared Modi’s fixation with Nehru to the philosopher Voltaire’s quote about the necessity of creating a figure if one does not exist. Ramesh further accused the prime minister of using Nehru to obscure his government’s shortcomings and silence discussions on pressing matters.
The Congress party’s rebuttal came a day after Modi’s speech during the debate on the ‘Glorious 75-year Journey of India’s Constitution’, where he accused the Congress of “mutilating” the Constitution in its quest for power. Modi highlighted that his government’s policies since 2014 were aimed at enhancing India’s strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.
