At an event of the relaunch of his book ‘Nehru: The Invention of India’, Shashi Tharoor took a dig at Modi by saying, “If today we have a ‘chaiwala’ as Prime Minister, it’s because Nehru ji made it possible to create the institutional structures through which any Indian can aspire to rise to the highest office in the land.”
Tharoor expressed his detest over the slandering of Nehru done on the various social media platforms which has been attempting to undermine his legacy. He further said , “We’ve seen a consorted campaign of vilification, of the astonishing amount of lies that are out there on the internet. Why is there this desire to undermine such a great son of India [Nehru], somebody who laid the foundations for what we have created?”
He went on further by acclaiming Nehru’s contribution to the various fields by saying, “If today the government can boast about Mangalyaan, ask who created ISRO. Who decided that even poor India could dare to aim for the skies? Who created the IITs that sent so many bright young men to Silicon Valley where 40% of the start-ups are helmed by Indians?”
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was also present on the book relaunch. She alleged that the Nehruvian legacy is being “undermined” by those presently in power, who have “contempt” for the country’s first prime minister for all that he did to build an India which they want to change for the “worse”.
She said that Tharoor in his book has summarized the values which rest at the core of the Nehruvianism which are democratic institutional building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics and foreign policy of non-alignment. She further stated,”These values were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally being challenged today.”,on the eve of Nehru’s birth anniversary.