Their language modern, but they're taking India backward: Sonia flays govt in Nehru memorial lecture

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Modi government accusing it of disrespecting the country's diversity and denying pluralism and seeking to take India backwards.

Delivering her speech at the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) here, She alleged the Modi government lacked the capacity, vision and wisdom to uphold Nehru's legacy.

On the 130th birth anniversary of the country's first prime minister, Sonia called upon all to unite and speak up against the "bigotry, injustice and mismanagement" of the last six years.

Jawaharlal Nehru's vision stood for four pillars -- democratic institution-building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and a non-aligned foreign policy -- and remain at the core of true India, she said.

"It is lamentable that those who are in power today are blind to this truth. They lack the capacity, the vision and the wisdom to uphold this legacy. The forces unleashed by our present rulers want to dictate to us what we can do, say or think.

"Their idea of unity is uniformity. They disrespect and fear diversity which means they deny our pluralism, our freedom of choice, which are integral to our fundamental rights. Their language may be modern, but they seek to take India backward, not forward. For after all, they made no sacrifices to shape India's destiny," she said.

"It falls on each and every one of us to pull away this hypocrisy and reveal the darkness lurking beneath. We must unite and speak up against the bigotry, injustice and mismanagement of the last six years Not just for ourselves, but for the millions of our fellow brothers and sisters who continue to suffer," she also said.

Listing out the four pillars of Nehruvianism, she said, these were integral to his vision of India. "Today, this vision is fundamentally under attack, but it remains at the core of the true India that we must continue to fight for."