In his Sunday edition of Mann Ki Baat, PM asked people to remember the contribution of icons and to mark the upcoming birth anniversaries of heroes such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on September 26, Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri on October 2, Jayaprakash Narayan on October 11, Sardar Patel on October 31, and of "countless more".
Immediately, many on Twitter reacted that the PM had "deliberately" skipped mentioning first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary on November 14 and that of his daughter and third PM Indira Gandhi's on November 19. Intentional or not, this latest episode comes in the wake of the BJP-led government's steps to discontinue postage stamps bearing pictures of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and recast the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML).
Well-known academics and film-makers, such as Romila Thapar and Girish Karnad, have been quick to issue an appeal calling for an informed debate before any attempts are made to change the character of the institute.
Last week, NMML director Mahesh Rangarajan had quit. This was after reports that even the Election Commission was likely to look into his re-appointment process by the outgoing UPA government after it had lost power, and the procedure followed contravened the poll code. But his resignation has stoked fears that the venerable institute might fall into undeserving hands.
