MUMBAI: “Coming from a political ideology in which my party has historically criticised Nehru, I must acknowledge that even Balasaheb Thackeray, the Shiv Sena founder, was among his critics.However, if Balasaheb Thackeray were alive today and saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of governance, I believe he would have said India needed Nehru today. He would have acknowledged Nehru’s importance,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, praising India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and taking a swipe at Modi, while addressing a gathering of Congress supporters at the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters in Dadar on Friday.Congress organised a programme, Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, on the 137th birth anniversary of Nehru and invited academicians and politicians from different parties to address the gathering. State party chief Harshwardhan Sapkal and ex-MP and journalist Kumar Ketkar were among the speakers, along with Raut.“Nehru is an inseparable part of our lives. No matter how hard Narendra Modi and his associates try to destroy Nehru’s image or diminish his legacy, Nehru will remain an enduring part of this country until the very end. I felt that Nehru was truly a visionary, a man of extraordinary foresight. Otherwise, this country might never have developed the way it did,” said Raut.Undivided Shiv Sena was a harsh critic of the Nehru-Gandhi family till 2019 and was an alliance partner of the Modi-led govt, but then it separated from BJP over its claim to the chief minister post in Maharashtra, and formed govt along with Congress and undivided NCP under the chief ministership of Uddhav Thackeray. In 2022, Shiv Sena split: deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde became head of Shiv Sena, while the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray became Shiv Sena (UBT). Subsequently, NCP too split into two and many politicians accused BJP of dividing the political parties by using central govt agencies, mainly ED.Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using govt agencies to target opponents, Raut said Nehru would listen to and appreciate his critics and cited poet Nagarjun as an example. “Nehru did not send the ED, CBI or Income Tax officials to Nagarjun’s house simply because Nagarjun had criticised him. He did not order raids against him, nor did he have his property confiscated.”
