2 min readNew DelhiNov 18, 2014 02:44 AM IST
First published on: Nov 18, 2014 at 02:44 AM IST
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and D Raja share a light moment at a function to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday. (Source: PTI)
The BJP, which was left out of a conference organised by the Congress on Jawaharlal Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary, on Monday alleged that the party’s invitee list has been “influenced” by its “current depleting fortunes.”
Taking a swipe on the presence of leaders from the Left and members of splinter groups of erstwhile Janata Dal, proponents of Ram Manohar Lohia’s ideology, at the conference, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley said: “Lohia stood for complete negation of Nehruvian politics. He rejected Panditji’s politics during his lifetime. The Left’s anger against him was further fuelled by the invocation of Article 356 to dislodge the first-ever democratically elected Communist government led by E M S Namboodripad in Kerala…Those who rejected Panditji’s politics in his lifetime, are a part of the show of strength at this symposium,” he said in a statement.
The symposium is being attended by some who rejected Nehruvian politics during his lifetime and others whom he may have ideologically disinherited, he said.
The two-day conference held at Vigyan Bhawan was attended by West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury from CPI(M), former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, CPI’s D Raja and NCP general secretary D P Tripathi.
Jaitley also took exception to former Union minister Salman Khurshid’s statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been “exporting groups from India to foreign destinations” he visits.
“If UPA leaders, during their days in government, left the expatriate Indian population underwhelmed, is it to be presumed that this should be true for others. I can understand the plight of Salman and his party colleagues particularly when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a larger crowd in Sydney than what Salman’s leaders gets in India,” Jaitley said.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and D Raja share a light moment at a function to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday. (Source: PTI)
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