The BJP on Sunday targeted Jawaharlal Nehru, circulating a video over his role in the Partition while the party’s government in Karnataka dropped India’s first prime minister from an I-Day advertisement, setting off howls of protest from the Congress.
In the seven-minute video containing archival footage, the party squarely laid the blame for the country’s partition on Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the communists. And Nehru, a familiar target of the BJP, was present throughout the video.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the saffron party over the video, saying the “real intent” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to use the horror of the Partition “as fodder for his current political battles”.
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In Karnataka, Congress leader Siddaramaiah lashed out at Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for the Nehru-less advertisement, terming him a “slave” of the RSS.
Last year, Modi announced that August 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day in memory of the struggles and sacrifices of people. Several academicians and parties then criticised the move.
Attacking the Congress on Sunday, the BJP said the Partition was planned by those who had no knowledge of Indian culture and values and aided by those who helped the British.
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In the video, the BJP raised questions on how the Partition was allowed to happen in 1947 when a similar attempt to bifurcate Bengal in 1905 had failed and the British had to roll it back in 1911.
The blame, the party said, lies with the Congress, the Muslim League and the Indian communists. The BJP also blamed Congress for giving hope to Muslim fundamentalists after the Congress carried out the Khilafat movement. The video was criticised by Congress.
Ramesh said that the “modern-day Savarkars and Jinnahs are continuing their efforts to divide the nation”.
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“The politics of hate will be defeated,” he said.
Noting that Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar “originated the two-nation theory and (Mohd Ali) Jinnah perfected it”, Ramesh quoted
Sardar Vallabhai Patel as saying that he felt that if we did not accept partition, India would be split into “many bits and would be completely ruined”.
Taking to Twitter, BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya refuted it and said the two-nation theory was first propounded by Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University, in 1876, and Savarkar was born in 1883.
Row over ad
The Basavaraj Bommai government issued an advertisement to commemorate the country’s 76th Independence Day, in which Veer Savarkar found space but Nehru was conspicuously missing.
The Congress took aim at Bommai for dropping Nehru’s photo on the list of freedom fighters. Siddaramaiah hit out at Bommai, calling him a “slave” of the RSS, while BJP leader N Ravikumar defended the government, saying
Nehru’s image was not included as he was responsible for the partition.
“When we thought slavery ended with the British gone, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai (has) proved everyone wrong by showing that he is still a slave to RSS. Not including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the list of freedom fighters in today’s govt ad shows how low a CM can go to save his chair,” Siddaramaiah tweeted.
KPCC president DK Shivakumar wrote to Bommai and said that BJP has insulted Nehru by not including him in the list and “thereby made a failed attempt at twisting history”.
“You (Bommai) shouldn’t have indulged in such petty acts for political reasons. This is unpardonable,” he said, demanding an apology from Bommai.