After invoking Mahatma Gandhi's name to launch his 'Swacch Bharat' campaign on 2 October, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has usurped two Congress icons Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi in order to boost the effort. While the PM was happy to attack the current damaad of the Gandhi family aka Robert Vadra over his shady land deals, he also used the names of Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in order to promote the Swacch Bharat campaign.
At the rally, Modi had this to say about Vadra: "They (Hooda government) know that after the elections, the son-in-law (Vadra) will not get any clearances for illegal deals. So, in between the election process, they have dared to take such a decision. I think Hooda was pressurised from the top (Congress leadership) to take such a decision."
Modi then went on to "dedicate the week between Nehru’s birth anniversary on November 14 and Indira’s birth anniversary on November 19 to his 'Clean India' campaign in primary schools and anganwadis."
According to a Times of India report, Modi said, "When we celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Nehru on November 14, all schools should give lessons on cleanliness to the children. The campaign is for children that Chacha Nehru loved. They should be taught cleanliness and healthy living."
As the report points out, this new found love for Chacha Nehru in sharp contrast to what he had said, last October, at a function in Gujarat while sharing the stage with then PMManmohan Singh: "Every Indian wishes that Patel should have become the first PM of India. If it had been so, then the face and the fate of the country would have been something else Patel was a visionary."
PM Modi at the Hisar rally in Haryana. PTI
According to this Telegraphreport, while BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh tried to underplay the importance of these remarks, official sources sought to show these remarks as part of the Prime Minister's "ability to transcend partisan politics".
Meanwhile the Congress quickly claimed credit for Modi's change of heart. As the Times of India notes, the party plans a huge international conference with political and intellectual leaders to celebrate Nehru's 125th birth anniversary this year and it believes that this is what forced the PM to acknowledge Nehru. One Congress leader told the paper, "The PM seems to have come to know about our plan and that is the reason why he is talking about Nehru. We are not dependent on government to celebrate our icon."
The report notes that the Congress has been unhappy with the government which had announced plans to celebrate Mahatma's 150th birth anniversary in 2019, but has not announced anything for Nehru.
This isn't the first time that Modi has used a historic leader's name to promote his own cause, and the appropriation of Nehru w would have happened soon or later, as columnist Saroj Nagi noted in this piece for Firstpost.
While Modi's I-day speech might not have mentioned Nehru, Nagi argues, it did have a tone similar to the now famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech given by India's first Prime Minister -- whose Non-Aligned philosophy also found echoes in the image Modi is trying to present himself on the world stage.
Of course, it should can't be forgotten that where Nehru and Modi are concerned, their policies and political outlook are poles apart. But this is irrelevant to Modi's strategy according to Nagi, who argues that while other political leaders choose to put their icons on the pedestal, PM Modi "takes inspiration from them and loves to either usurp or outstrip them." According to Nagi, Modi reduced his former mentors LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and "to anachronisms" in the party and that he intends to do the same with the legacy of Vajpayee and Nehru.
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