Karnataka misses Nehru in Independence ad; Congress slams

New Delhi: Among multiple events of BJP leadership leaving or downplaying the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, from the face of 75th Independence Day celebrations, the Karnataka government's newspaper ad on the occasion missed his picture.

Congress has heavily come down on this, saying that "Nehru will survive such pettiness", IANS reported.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Nehru will survive such pettiness. CM Karnataka desperate to save his job, knows what he has done is an insult to his father S.R. Bommai and his father's 1st political guru M.N. Roy both great Nehru admirers, the latter being a friend as well. Pathetic this is."

In the mentioned ad, the Karnataka government gave pictures of 12 freedom fighters, including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Chandrashekhar Azad, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, but Nehru.

IANS reports that BJP blames Nehru for partition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet on Sunday that "Today, on #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay, I pay homage to all those who lost their lives during Partition, and applaud the resilience as well as grit of all those who suffered during that tragic period of our history."

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the real intent of the Prime Minister to mark August 14 as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' was to use the most traumatic historical events as fodder for his current political battles. "Lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives. Their sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected," Ramesh wrote in a tweet.

Jairam Ramesh said that PM Modi's prime intention in declaring August 14 as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' was to use the traumatic historical events as fuel for his political battles. Lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives. Their sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected," Ramesh tweeted.

He said, "The tragedy of partition, cannot be misused to fuel hate and prejudice. The truth is Savarkar originated 2 nation theory, and Jinnah perfected it. Sardar Patel wrote, "I felt that if we did not accept partition, India would be split into many bits and would be completely ruined"

He asked, "Will the PM also recall today Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, the founder of the Jan Sangh, who championed the Partition of Bengal against the wishes of Sarat Chandra Bose, and who sat in free India's first Cabinet while the tragic consequences of Partition were becoming evident?"