Goa Congress chief slams RSS, BJP for Nehru-baiting

Hitting back at the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for constantly criticising Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress in Goa on Tuesday accused the Sangh of not taking part in the freedom struggle.

Addressing a press conference, Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said BJP leaders were ignorant of history, due to which they blame Nehru, the country's first prime minister, for everything.

"It is a well-known fact that RSS and its sister organisations were with the British government when the country was fighting for independence," he said.

"The way they are blaming Nehru unnecessarily, we can also say that India would have got independence (earlier), had the organisations like RSS and its sister organisations participated in the freedom struggle," Chodankar said.

"RSS leaders should also tell people why it took them so many years to unfurl the tricolour at their headquarters if they claim to be patriotic," the Congress leader said.

BJP leaders always try to malign Nehru because they are still afraid of him, he said.

On a statement by BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule was delayed due to Nehru's 'wrong priorities', Chodankar said the then Union government (under Nehru) wanted to use non-violent means to merge Goa with India.

"When all the possibilities of non-violence were over, then armed forces were sent in to liberate Goa," he said.

Goa was liberated in 1961.

Reacting to Chodankar's tirade, state BJP chief Vinay Tendulkar said the opposition party was showing "signs of frustration" after its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and also since the Narendra Modi government at the Centre exposed it on the Jammu and Kashmir issue (by abrogating Article 370).

"The wrong policies of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders had plagued the country, which is now witnessing a new era under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Modi," he said.