Jawaharlal Nehru Wikipedia page: Congress demands 'full enquiry', PM Modi's apology

NEW DELHI: Branding it a "cheap, undemocratic and gutter level tactic", Congress today demanded a "full enquiry" and lodging of a criminal case into the reported changes made from a central government IP address on Wikipedia pages to show that Jawaharlal Nehru was of Muslim lineage.

"A deliberate, sinister and malicious attempt was made... to alter the Wikipedia pages of... Jawaharlal Nehru, his father Motilal Nehru and grandfather Gangadhar by showing or attempting to show that their lineage was not 'Kaul' of Jammu and Kashmir but lineage... was Muslim," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

"We demand a full enquiry and we want (the) Prime Minister and (the) IT Minister to answer as also lodging of a criminal case under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code," he said.

Surjewala said that what made the case "very serious" was that this attempt was made from an IP address of National Informatics Centre, the software solution provider of the Government of India.

Surjewala wanted the Prime Minister to answer to the nation as to how the Internet Protocol address of government of India and NIC was being used for this "sinister and malicious attempt"?

The IT minister and the PM must not only apologise to the nation but also undo the mistake and take necessary corrective measures, he said.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi suspected that it could be another attempt of polarisation by the party in power.

"The Wikipedia page editing is the most reprehensible, cheap, undemocratic and gutter level tactic... We cannot even think that in the largest democracy of the world an attempt is made to defame the first PM Pandit Nehru who was a world statesmen," Singhvi said.