‘What would have Nehru ji written to Edwina Mountbatten that needed censoring’: BJP targets Congress

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday targeted Congress over the alleged withdrawal of Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters on Sonia Gandhi’s orders from the Prime Minister’s Memorial & Library (PMML) in 2008, questioning its contents. The party has demanded that the letters, written by the first Indian prime minister to Edwina Mountbatten, Jayprakash Narayan, among others to be made public.

“What intrigues me is what would have Nehru ji written to EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN that needed censoring and will LOP Rahul help getting back the letters between Nehru and Edwina!” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in a post on X.

“From What’s today the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library & formerly Nehru Museum and Library, the then UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi took away 51 cartoons of letters written by Nehru to various personalities including “EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN”! In the recently concluded AGM of the PMML one of the members Sh Rizwan Kadri has written to LoP Rahul Gandhi and sought his help in getting back the letters from his mother Sonia Gandhi!” he added.

Patra also raised the issue in the Lok Sabha and through a press conference demanding answers from the grand old party.

“This is a historical heritage (collection of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru), not the property of any family… The country wants to know what was in the correspondence between Nehru ji and Lady Mountbatten and Jagjivan Ram and Jayaprakash Narayan?… What was there in these letters that the first family felt it should not be made public?… We demand that the collection of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru should be returned,” he said in the press conference.

— ANI (@ANI)

‘Must have been some objectionable content’

BJP’s reaction came after PMML member Rizwan Kadri said that he had written to the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi requesting him to return those letters. He said that his decision came after a similar request to Sonia Gandhi in September this year received no response.

“Since no response was received from her, I have requested Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to help in getting these materials restored. I have also urged him to consider that these documents are part of the nation’s heritage and an important aspect of its history. Until we can view these materials, we cannot determine the reasons for their withdrawal. There must have been some objectionable content for them to have been removed,” Kadri told ANI.

Informing about the contents of the letters, Kadri said, “These include important correspondences between Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, as well as letters exchanged with Pt Govind Ballabh Pant, Jayaprakash Narayan, and others.”

Congress is yet to comment on this matter.

Courtesy : TOI

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