New Delhi: The Congress on Monday tried to reconnect with the people by commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru following the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.
Its two-day international conference on Nehru was a message to the BJP and PM Narendra Modi not to hijack national icons.
Without naming the party, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said Nehru’s ideas were under threat from “misrepresentation and distortion.”
The international conference at Vigyan Bhavan here saw the coming together of archrivals Trinamul supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and CPM leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury and the CPI’s D. Raja.
Also witnessed was camaraderie between the Congress and former PM H.D. Deve Gowda of the JD(S), Sharad Yadav, D.P. Tripathi of the NCP, and Jaiprakash Nara-yan Yadav of the RJD.
But the top leaders of the Samajwadi Party, BSP, DMK, AIADMK, BJD, National Conference and the PDP were not to be seen.
The conference comes at a time of speculation about party vice-president Rahul Gandhi undertaking a “mass contact” programme gaining ground in Congress circles. While seniors in the Congress appear to be lying low, generation-next has become active.
In her opening rem-arks, Mrs Gandhi made a veiled attack on saffron forces. “Jawaharlal Nehru once remarked that wealth shouts, but knowledge whispers. That whisper of knowledge about Nehru’s life and work has weakened in recent years in our country, drowned out by misrepresentation and distortion,” she said.
