Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and National Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on Monday criticised the Congress after former Vice President Hamid Ansari referred to Jawaharlal Nehru’s views on communism and Hindu nationalism.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Trivedi said Ansari’s remarks had exposed what he described as the ideological position of the present-day Congress. Ansari had referred to a 2019 book that quoted India’s first Prime Minister as saying that communism was not as serious a threat to him as Hindu nationalism.
Trivedi said Ansari’s reference served three purposes. He alleged that it showed the Congress had become a “‘Muslim League Maoist Congress’ in totality”, while also pointing out that Nehru had regarded communism as a threat. According to the BJP leader, the Congress had now moved towards the “ultra-Left”.
He also linked the issue to Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, claiming that the political language used by the current leadership reflected its roots in Nehruvian ideology.
The BJP leader’s comments followed Ansari’s remarks on communalism, extremism and concerns surrounding civic nationalism at a memorial programme for constitutional expert and author Abdul Ghafoor Noorani.
Ansari had referred to Noorani’s 2019 book, The RSS: A Menace to India, and to observations in its introduction. He also cited remarks attributed to Nehru and recorded by former Foreign Secretary Jagat Singh Gundevia during a meeting of officers of the Ministry of External Affairs.
While speaking at the event, Ansari said the book’s title reflected Noorani’s concerns and recalled Nehru’s warning that “the real danger to India was not communism, but Hindu right-wing communalism”. He also referred to what he described as emerging trends that challenge the principle of civic nationalism.
Ansari made the remarks during the 3rd AG Noorani Memorial Lecture, titled “Remembering a Polymath: The Life and Times of Abdul Ghafoor Noorani”. The programme was held at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in New Delhi on September 18.
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