Was Parliament discussing the role of Congress since Independence, Modiji?

One thought that after Modi’s frequent attempts to blame Nehru for everything done or not done by him had become the subject matter of jokes on the social media, the latest of which alleges that it was Nehru who disconnected the teleprompter at the virtual meeting of the WEF forum last month rendering the former at a loss for words, Modi would stop bringing in Nehru in his speeches. Old habits, however, die-hard and a man grounded in hatred cannot see reason.

No wonder Modi was at it again on 7 February in the Lok Sabha and on the next day in the Rajya Sabha, raving mad about Nehru and Indira Gandhi and Congress Party and the name of the Grand Old Party and many irrelevant things like 'urban Naxals' and 'tukde tukde gang'.

It is evident that most of the things Modi said in the two speeches were out of context. It is curious and unfortunate too, that neither the Speaker of the Lower House nor the Chairman of the Upper House interrupted him or cautioned him to keep to the matter under discussion. Parliament was certainly not discussing the role of the Congress since independence. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Venkaiya Naidu, both routinely and rudely shout down Congress members at the slightest of digressions on their part. Venkaiah Naidu is on record shouting down Rahul Gandhi on the sacred precinct of the Rajya Sabha. Both the Constitutional dignitaries evidently compromised their position and brought disgrace to their post when they allowed Modi to vent his venom unbridled.

Modi was speaking like a BJP troll, hardly like a prime minister. The two speeches he made looked like a series of WhatsApp forwards or Twitter posts sent out from right-wing accounts containing nothing but allegations. There were lies too, as usual. It was VP Singh's government, supported by the BJP when Kashmiri Pandits had to flee the valley in January 1990, not Congress government as Modi claimed. It was also contradictory to call Congress governments 'Tata-Birla ki sarkaar' and also accuse Nehru of robbing the Tatas of Air India as BJP had done earlier. One clearly sensed that a fear of the Congress impelled Modi as Rahul Gandhi rightly noted.

One is not obliged to answer all the insinuations made by Modi against Nehru and Indira Gandhi as nearly all the things said by him beg the question. In other words, the truth of the things he said needed to be proved.

It is amusing that Modi and his party men remember only one thing about Gandhi, namely that he wanted to dismantle the Congress. The truth is, only Gandhi came to the support of Nehru when the partition riots instigated by the RSS and other extreme groups held his government to ransom and even some of his own colleagues were sympathizing with the rioters. As Nehru noted, there was evidence to implicate the RSS in certain horrible happenings. This unfortunately led to Gandhi's murder and Sardar Patel had to eventually impose a ban on the outfit.

Indira faced the same chaos in 1975, again backed by RSS, among others. She proved tougher than Nehru and rightly declared an emergency.

Rahul Gandhi, though visibly hurt by the unwarranted allegations made against his grandmother and really great grandfather was forthright. The great-grandson of Nehru rarely gives up good manners. He simply told Modi: If you like abusing the Congress and Nehru, be my guest but do your job.

Nobody, however, likes to hear a great man like Nehru being abused by the present prime minister. If public speaking is the art of persuasion, Modi failed to persuade. He evoked revulsion.

Views are personal