Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday invoked Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, as he also remembered Mahatma Gandhi. Calling Nehru “a true democrat”, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) chief said that he was “a symbol of parliamentary democracy”. His praise for the country’s first PM was coupled with tacit swipe at the BJP as he talked of “public sector undertakings being closed down”.
Nehru encouraged opposing views, Stalin underlined, while discussions in Parliament are not being allowed in the present times, news agency PTI reported. The remark was also viewed as an attack on the BJP days after winter session of Parliament was cut short amid repeated disruptions over the India-China tensions and December 9 face-off between troops of both the countries along the Line of Actual Control in Aruchal Pradesh’s Tawang. “Today’s political situation shows us the true value of Nehru. Just like Tamil Nadu needs (EVR) Periyar, Anna (CN Annadurai) and Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) after all these years, India needs Gandhi and Nehru to establish federalism, equality, secularism, brotherhood, equality…,” Stalin was quoted as saying at an event amid Christmas celebrations.
On Sunday, the Congress’s Jairam Ramesh had also put a tweet – in a dig at the rival BJP – reminding how Nehru had agreed to a discussion by BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the India-China tensions in 1962 when the grand old party was in power.
Also, Stalin praised Rahul Gandhi a day after the Congress’s Kankyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra reached Delhi amid a mega show of strength. Rahul’s speeches “are creating tremors in the country”, Stalin said, adding: “He is not speaking electoral politics or party politics but politics of ideology. And that is why he is being strongly opposed by some persons. His talks sometimes are like Nehru. It will be surprising only if Nehru’s heir doesn’t talk like that. The descendants of Godse will only feel bitter by the talks by the heirs of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru.”
Opposition parties have been putting up a united front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the DMK and the Congress are also allies and the collaboration will continue in 2024.
(With inputs from PTI)
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