Congress to resurrect Nehruvian ideas to counter PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "focused assault on Nehruvian ideas" will be the catalyst behind the intense Congress focus on resurrecting the first PM on the national centrestage.

Jawaharlal Nehru's 125th anniversary celebrations provide Congress with the ideal opening to toast the stalwart in the national discourse just when he is under attack.

The celebrations were always on but, insiders said, the advent of a hard line right-wing government seeking to posit Modi against Nehru has provided added impetus to the issue. The party on Sunday announced a panel, headed by Sheila Dikshit, to implement Nehru anniversary programmes.

Reeling under the debilitating defeat handed out by the saffron mascot, Congress's bid to hold up its foremost leader is also an attempt to insert ideological pull with the cadre in a state of disarray.

"So long as BJP talks about Nehru, Congress can always talk about him. Thanks to Modi that Nehru is back on centrestage," a Congress insider said.

Modi's Independence Day announcement to wind up the Planning Commission has been widely seen as an attempt to slight the Congress stalwart given that the panel is an integral part of Nehru's legacy.

The "unbridled industry view" on welfare programmes and the rising communal tension and Hindutva language have, inside 100 days, provided a rightwing package that challenges the Congress ideology as handed down by Nehru. Add to it the PM's address to students on Teacher's Day last week, and there appears a picture of Modi seeking to match 'Chacha Nehru'.

According to Congress sources, Nehru celebrations will focus on his ideas that BJP is seeking to neutralize. "The idea is to give a robust response to BJP's campaign against him," a leader said.

Nehru will be projected as the progenitor of pro-poor policies in governance. "State as a social equalizer" is reflected in schemes like job guarantee Act, the new Land Acquisition Act which, Congress says, are either being replaced or weakened at the cost of the poor.

Modi's bid to project himself as a "muscular nationalist" by seeking to project Nehru as weak on foreign policy and Kashmir would be countered with not just his contribution in the international order but also his social policies.

"Nehru was muscular against landlords, against royalty, against rapacious exploiters. Modi is weak here," a Congress leader said.