Mamata, Left join Cong in Nehru tribute
JD- U, RJD, NCP present too The Congress party on Monday tried to re- connect with the people by commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru following the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.
Its two- day international conference on Nehru was a message to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to hijack national icons. Without naming the right- wing forces, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said Nehru’s ideas were under threat from “misrepresentation and distortion”.
The international conference at Vigyan Bhavan here saw the coming together of arch- rivals Trinamul Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and CPI( M) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury and the CPI’s D. Raja. Also witnessed was camaraderie between the Congress and former PM H. D. Deve Gowda ( JD- S), Mr Sharad Yadav ( JD- U), Mr D. P. Tripathi ( NCP), Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav ( RJD). But the top leaders of the Samajwadi Party, BSP, DMK, AIADMK, BJD, National Conference and
Sonia: Nehru’s ideas are facing a threat from right- wing forces
PDP were not to be seen.
The conference comes at a time of speculation about party vice- president Rahul Gandhi undertaking a “mass contact” programme gaining ground in Congress circles. While seniors in the Congress appear to be lying low, generation- next has become active.
In her opening remarks, Mrs Gandhi made a veiled attack on saffron forces. “Jawaharlal Nehru once remarked that wealth shouts, but knowledge whispers. That whisper of knowledge about Nehru’s life and work has weakened in recent years in our country, drowned out by misrepresentation and distortion,” she said.
Without naming the saffron forces pleading the line of “One people, one culture”, she said, “In a country more diverse, more complex, more heterogeneous than any other on Earth, Nehru was a great unifying force in the critical years after Independence.”
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday called on veteran BJP leader L. K. Advani at his residence. While the Trinamul Congress maintained it was a courtesy call to meet Mr Advani and his wife Kamla, who is not keeping well, political circles went abuzz over the meeting as it came at a time when there have been numerous incidents of clashes between supporters of the two parties in Bengal ever since the Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP bagged two seats.
The BJP has been attacking the TMC government over the Saradha scam, attacks on BJP workers, the Burdwan blast and accusing it of turning the state into “land for jihadis”.
Ms Banerjee was in the national capital to attend an event organised by the Congress to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.