BJP National Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
“Historical blunders like letting Pakistan and China occupy Indian territory, and granting special status to Jammu & Kashmir” were the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (December 7, 2025), responding to Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s charge that the ruling establishment’s main goal was to defame the former Prime Minister.
At a press conference, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the word “destruction” used by Ms. Gandhi in her allegation was “synonymous with” Rahul Gandhi. He said Mr. Gandhi was a “Bhasmasur” of Indian politics today, claiming that he destroyed the parties of “Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra, Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi”, and had also “destroyed” the prospects of RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav in the recent Bihar Assembly polls. He added that Mr. Gandhi was now headed to Uttar Pradesh, where Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav was the target.
On Friday, at the inauguration ceremony of the Nehru Centre India at Jawahar Bhawan, Ms. Gandhi had alleged that a systematic effort was underway to distort Nehru’s ideas and undermine his contribution to the freedom movement and the shaping of the modern India. “Their goal is not just to erase him, it is actually to destroy the social, political, and economic foundations on which our nation has been founded and built,” she said.
Hitting back, Mr. Bhatia asserted that Nehru’s legacy included the incorporation of Article 370 in the Constitution, not accepting an offer of a UN Security Council seat in favour of China, and allowing Pakistan and China to “capture” Indian territory. Describing these as “historic blunders”, he said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, those “blunders” were being corrected, referring to the abrogation of Article 370.
Countering the Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha)’s allegation that the government “tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet him”, he accused Mr. Gandhi of indulging in “politics of lies”. He said Mr. Gandhi had met former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year, and this year he also met Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the whole world witnessed the friendship between India and Russia… when the whole world looks towards India and praises it, there is a group in India that beats its chest, mourns, and tries to somehow suppress the main issues, the matters of national interest and national security, so that such news does not become big. Instead, they raise some issue related to the ‘fake Gandhi’, Rahul Gandhi,” he said.
Published – December 07, 2025 01:00 am IST
